Programs

Helping East Oakland Oakland build a Community Food System…

 we believe in empowering youth with knowledge, skills and nutrition education resources that keep them rooted in their connection to where real food comes from and how healthy eating can impact their health and development. We currently serve over 500 youth of color per year at these four east Oakland schools.

Oakland Unity High School: Unity High “live”
A program where students who are passionate about learning, and eager to apply new skills, are turning their asphalt school ground into an urban agriculture space for growing  fresh fruits, herbs and vegetable s. Youth participants are encouraged to participate in  micro-enterprise projects, such as the Purple Lawn Café, to encourage further exploration of the business and social impacts they can make on our urban food system.

Year Established: 2005

Activities: Food Demonstrations, Urban Gardening activities, Food Justice Videos & Discussions groups, Classroom presentations, after school education.

In this program, we work with Unity High youth in sustaining Unity’s 700 sq. foot garden bed system. We grow over 500lbs of food annually: beets, carrots, greens, broccoli, artichokes, squash and more. Through student mentorship, we remind Unity’s youth that they are only 1-2 generations away from their agricultural past of growing food, and it is up to them to keep this connection alive for future generations.

Once grown, produce, herbs and flowers, are harvested, youth participants are encouraged to take produce home. We also incorporate some of Unity’s produce back into our programs the Oakland Community Farmers Market and the Purple Lawn Café. We often we find our students (and Unity’s teachers), munching on the “fruits of our collective labor.” Overall, students learn the value of independence, human power, community and sustainability.

Photos from Oakland Unity High School:

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E.C. Reems Academy of Arts and Technology

East Oakland’s first rooftop garden, can be found at E.C. Reems Academy of Arts and Technology, centrally located at 8425 MacArthur Boulevard,. Oakland, CA. With a plethora of liquor stores, lack of safe spaces to play, and grocery stores within walking distance and limited economic activity, E.C. Reems is an innovative beacon of Fod Justice and sustainability, leading the way toward developing a green economy in East Oakland’s Castlemont District.

Year established: 2007

Activities: Food Demonstrations, Urban Gardening activities, Food Justice Videos & Discussions groups, Classroom presentations, after school education.

In this program, we work with students, grades K-8 learning how to sustain East Oakland’s first rooftop garden. Consisiting of over 900 sq. feet of garden beds, we grow over 600lbs of food annually: beets, carrots, tomatoes, greens, broccoli, artichokes, squash and more. We work to remind youth participants that they are only 1-2 generations away from their agricultural past of growing food, and it is up to them to keep this connection alive for future generations.

Once grown, produce, herbs and flowers, are harvested, youth participants are encouraged to take produce home. We also incorporate some of E.C. Reems produce back into our programs the Oakland Community Farmers Market and the Purple Lawn Café. We often we find our students (as well as teachers & administrators), munching on the “fruits of our collective labor” by snagging a bag or two of produce. Overall, students learn the value of independence, human power, community and sustainability.

Students not only maintain this garden as a way of learning about how to grow food and developing healthy eating habits, but also on a micro scale what it means to generate jobs and income, from its process “from seed to table.” One student remarked, “If people in their communities had jobs, then Oakland would be free of violence, crime, and pollution.

Photos from E.C. Reems Academy:

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Thurgood Marshall Elementary

Deep East Oakland’s farm on a hill, lives at Thurgood Marshall Elementary. Hidden away, in the bedroom community of Oakknoll Hills, there is an immense lack of food security, safe spaces for youth to play, and grocery stores for families to access within a reasonable walking distance. Thurgood is an innovative beacon of Food Justice and community sustainability, adding a critical Food System model that contributes to East Oakland’s growing green economy.

Year Established: 2010

Activities: Food Demonstrations, Urban Gardening activities, Food Justice Videos & Discussions groups, Classroom presentations, after school education.

We work with students, grades K-5, learning how to sustain over 1500 sq. feet of garden beds. We aim to grow over 1000lbs of food annually: beets, carrots, tomatoes, greens, broccoli, artichokes, squash and more. We work to remind youth participants that they are only 1-2 generations away from their agricultural past of growing food, and it is up to them to keep this connection alive for future generations.

Once grown, produce, herbs and flowers, are harvested, youth participants are encouraged to take produce home. We also incorporate some of Thurgood’s produce back into our programs the Oakland Community Farmers Market and the Purple Lawn Café. We often we find our students (as well as teachers & administrators), munching on the “fruits of our collective labor” by snagging a bag or two of produce. Overall, students learn the value of independence, human power, community and sustainability.

Ultimately, with this project, we intend to support Thurgood’s Marshall Elementary’s goal to build a community-run farm at their school. This will distribute food to families in need, inspire residents to create gardens at their homes, and to rethink how they connect to food.

Building gardens with individuals & community groups:

Despite the high requests from the Oakland community, OFC is currently not taking on any new residential garden projects with community groups. Although we’d love to, we simply don’t have the staffing capacity to do so. We’re currently gearing up to train a contingent of 20 youth leaders to take on community garden building efforts in the summer of 2012. For immediate garden building support, we suggest you contact www.plantingjustice.org , the www.oaklandfood.org or www.cityslickerfarms.org to inquire about their garden building services capacity.

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Creating Community Farmers Markets with Schools

As record food costs steady climb, new, more efficient ways to produce healthy food must arise at the local level to ensure that Oakland’s residents have access to the freshest foods possible. The answer to this challenge is right below our feet: growing distributing food right in our own community. The Oakland’s Community Food Market features locally grown, pesticide free fruits, vegetables and herbs grown by local farmers, urban farmers and artisan food producers.

Operated: 2008-2011

Activities performed: Food Demonstrations, participated in annual festivals, demonstration of Urban Gardening activities, summer film screenings, youth “green job” development, healthy food presentations, supported numerous ongoing cultural events.

Learning Points:

The OCFM’s vision was to is to inspire and inform the Laurel community on to valuable connection to healthy food, community food enterprise and the cultural connections to food. Over a three year period, we featured the following vendors:

• J& P Organics (Seasonal February – November)
• Hmoung Farms
• Salee Farms (seasonal March – October )
• Hidden Star Orchards (seasonal May-October)
• Bianchi Biscotti
• Iya Khan, the musician
• Hidden Star Farms
• Besto-Pesto
• Fist of Flour Pizza Co.
• The Purple Lawn Café
• Oakland Food Connection

In it’s 3 year run, the Oakland Community Farmers Market reached over 15, 000 visitors annually. We participated in 4 neighborhood events that exposed us to an additional 8,000 residents from around the greater East Bay. Although we had a large connection to customers, the average weekly customer base was to small to sustain our market beyond having one farmer and 4 weekly vendors. A farmers market typically needs minimum of 3 diverse farmers and a solid mix of 3-6 artisan vendors to flourish.

The Laurel neighborhood is culturally diverse and chocked full of neighboring stores to shop in such as The House of Produce, Farmer Joe’s, Luckys, and The Food Mill and many other smaller operations. Our youth and staff were sure that this neighborhood was suitable for a farmers market. In a neighborhood where a plethora of food exists, we never though we would uncover as many of the challenges we faced in operating a weekly farmers market. Ultimately, our staff found it difficult to work with property owners and to find a suitable location to operate a successful market. Therefore, we decided to move our farmers market closer to the communities of people who don’t have any access to food at all.

We are now in the process of adding youth-run farm stands to all of our school programs. Our youth believe the best approach in getting food to their community is to meet their fellow youth and their families right where they are–at school.

Oakland Community Farmers Market Photos (Program start July 2008 – Program End July 2011):