Urban Tilth Draft

Contents

3......Staff List 6......Letter from Executive Director 8......The Need for Urban Tilth 10....Our Goals 13....Our Staff & Board 16....Our Community Programs

20...Our Educational Programs 22...Program Summary-Policy Programs 24...Data 26...Finance Report 28...Mailer 29...Major Donors

STAFF BOARD APPRENTICES & VOLUNTEERS Project Managers Jessie Alberto, Project Manager, AdamsCrest Farm Kelli Barram, Project Manager, Washington School Garden Adam Boisvert, Project Manager, Richmond High Urban Ag Institute Sherman Dean, Project Manager, Edible Forest Teresa Jimenez, Technical Assistance Project Manager Jamarr Johnson, Project Assistant, AdamsCrest Farm Bienvenida Meza, Education Manager, Verde Partnership Garden Tania Pulido, Project Manager, Greenway Gardens Kenji Warren, Project Manager, AdamsCrest Farm

Project Assistants Giovanna Velasquez, AdamsCrest Farm Assistant Alfonso Leon, AdamsCrest Farm Assistant Alan Clark, Project Assistant, Edible Forest Brandon Clark, Project Assistant, Edible Forest Brandon Stevenson, Technical Assistance Program Assistant Juan Magana, Technical Assistance Program Assistant

Staff Apprentices Amber Doty, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program & Greenway Gardens Maria Navarro, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program RHS Laura Navarro, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program RHS Yareli Villanueva, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program Edible Forest Jonathan Perez, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program Edible Forest Kaderra Anderson, Staff Apprentice, Summer Apprentice Program Tech Assist

Administration Doria Robinson, Executive Director, Project Lead Roots and Restoration Farm & Richmond Food Policy Council Dejanique Dean, Administrative and Program Assistant

Consultants Further the Work, Fund Development and Capacity Building Ashara Ekundayo, Communications & Special Project Management Cliff Sorrel, Archiscape Design, Landscape Architect Joyce Polokoff Smail, CPA Janu Stein Orrick, Bookkeeping Kanchan Dawn Hunter, Designs on Revolution, Graphic Design Najari Smith, Geonomi, Product Labeling Graphic Design

2012 Board Richard Walkling, Board Chair Nicole Valentino, Interim Treasurer Eli Moore, Interim Secretary Richard Boyd Cheryl Vaughn

Leslie Geathers Jesse Kurtz-Nichol Carla Perez Doria Robinson Rick Topinka

SAP 2012 Apprentices

Anna Hurtado

Brandon Clark Giovanna Velaquez Jamar Johnson Magaly Gonzalez Johny Molina Jose Maravilla Kamonte Hide Nahum Martinez Zadia Saunders Melisha Smith Amber Doty Camisha Wallace Carolyn Bradford Erik Zapata Alan Gastelum Ana Leon Christian Contreras Dallana Magana Dennis Barnes Josue Guillen Laura Navarro Maria Navarro Nestor Guzman Paula Sanchez

Juan Magana Nayeli Ramirez Yomani Mapp Allen Clark John Lewis Kaderra Anderson Romario Pena Cerenda Wiley Jackson Cooper Kenia Silva Lance Zeno Taquila Walker Timothy Taylor Victor Castro Willinique David Meza Ricardo Muro

Letter From Executive Director - Helped to create an advocacy vehicle to address systemic food justice and food access issues. 1st full year of Richmond Food Policy Council - One of the goals of Urban Tilth is to grow ourselves not just our food. Development of staff who were once apprentices into program managers - Successes: SAP 2012 47 Apprentices - Breaking New Ground: Roots Farm, Wanlass Park & - New Partnerships with Cesar Chavez Foundation Sincerely, Doria Robinson

THE NEED

Urban Tilth’s mission is to cultivate agriculture in west Contra Costa County to help our community build a more sustainable, healthy, and just food system. We work with residents, schools, communitybased organizations, government agencies, businesses, and individuals to develop the capacity to produce 5% of our own food supply. Since its founding in 2006, Urban Tilth has emerged as a local leader, a catalyst of integrated, food- and communityfocused efforts. Staffed by residents and drawing on principles of leadership and youth development, we teach, farm, forage, train, and employ residents to increase our community’s food self-sufficiency.

OUR GOALS

Our goals are to help our community grow our own food; train and employ young people as “home grown experts”; teach residents about the relationships among food, health, poverty, and justice encouraging the conditions for community members demand increased access to healthy, affordable whole foods. We use our 12 school and community gardens and small urban farms to teach and employ community members to create a more equitable and just food system within a healthier and more self-sufficient community. We serve vulnerable communities by creating an alternative to deceptively inexpensive and health damaging “food” options as well as expensive and inaccessible healthy food options.

OUR BOARD & STAFF Our board and our staff are both composed primarily of local residents and social, economic, food and environmental justice advocates.

100% of our staff are Richmond or San Pablo residents and most live in the target neighborhoods that our gardens serve. 70% of our staff have worked their way through our urban agriculture training programs into staff positions over the last 6 years. Our staff is 46% Latino, 40% African American, 7% Caucasian and 7% Asian. We strongly believe that under-served communities have the potential to solve their own problems if given real opportunities to obtain quality education, meaningful employment and real leadership pathways. All of our programs use individual, youth and community development models as strategies to empower our residents to solve food justice challenges in West Contra Costa County.

GROW YOUR OWN

OUR COMMUNITY PROGRAMS Urban Tilth works within the community in 7 community gardens throughout Richmond and San Pablo neighborhoods. We coordinate and lead regular volunteer days and special community events to help grow food and grow community leaders by connecting people to each other and the land, while increasing and enriching knowledge of urban agriculture, healthy cooking practices and local food justice and environmental issues.

Our most popular community garden projects are Berryland, the Greenway Community Garden at 6th Street, the Edible Forest Garden and AdamsCrest Farm. Berryland currently consists of approximately 20 raised planter beds filled with more than 18 kinds of berry bushes.

The majority of the bushes are raspberries, but there are also blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, wolfberries, goumi berries and California native berries—thimbleberries, elderberries, alpine strawberries, and huckleberries. We also fudged a bit and planted a fig tree and 5 pineapple guavas. We cover crop with snow peas which were a big hit among Greenway users each winter.

We will also interplant with garlic, thyme, and yarrow to increase Berryland’s biodiversity and provide habitat for beneficial insects.

Our most popular community garden projects are Berryland, the Greenway Community Garden at 6th Street, the Edible Forest Garden and AdamsCrest Farm. Berryland currently consists of approximately 20 raised planter beds filled with more than 18 kinds of berry bushes. The majority of the bushes are raspberries, but there are also blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, boysenberries, gooseberries, wolfberries, goumi berries and California native berries—thimbleberries, elderberries, alpine strawberries, and huckleberries. We also fudged a bit and planted a fig tree and 5 pineapple guavas. We cover crop with snow peas which were a big hit among Greenway users each winter. We will also interplant with garlic, thyme, and yarrow to increase Berryland’s biodiversity and provide habitat for beneficial insects.

The Greenway Community Garden is an open, gleaning garden in the heart of the Iron Triangle neighborhood in Richmond, California. Its 42 raised beds are located on the southwest side of 6th Street along the Richmond Greenway between Ohio and Chanslor Ave. We currently raise a variety of vegetables and herbs year-around FREE for the community to harvest.

The Edible Forest Garden along the Richmond Greenway The Richmond Edible Forest Project engages youth in creat-

ing, maintaining, and using edible forest gardens on public lands throughout the greater Richmond area. Through direct and local engagement youth learn about both forest systems and food systems in a tactile, non-threatening, familiar environment close to home. The pilot edible forest garden on the Richmond Greenway will serves as an environmental education site where United States Forest Service research scientists and land managers can share with inner city kids more about the benefits of trees, forested landscapes and the environment, in general.

The AdamsCrest Farm project site is a 40,000 square foot slice of heaven, quietly nestled in the beautiful hills of Richmond, CA. The AdamsCrest site is defined by the sloping earth that encompass the farm’s southern and north eastern perimeter, and also by the fertile soil basin that comprise the site’s central core. Acting as a water sink, the slope naturally guides rainwater down into the nutrient rich soil in the basin. This sinking allows for seasonal groundwater recharging, and increased longevity of plant life into the dry summer months.

The landscape of the AdamsCrest alone makes this site a perfect candidate for a learning center dedicated to teaching the concepts of urban permaculture, and sustainable urban agricultural design.

OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMS Urban Tilth offers a range of K-12 urban agriculture programs, as well as gardening and garden craft workshops and community engagement opportunities for West Contra Costa residents.

Our flagship education program is the Urban Agriculture Institute at Richmond High School. This program consists of a year long credited Urban Agriculture and American Food Systems elective course, 2 student maintained garden/ farm teaching areas, a hot house and a Community Supported Agriculture project where students grow food for Richmond High community members and families. In this program student learn the A-Z of growing food in an urban environment, as well as the social history of American and Global Industrial Agriculture and gain a basic understanding or soil, water, agro- and urban ecology and botany.

Our Summer Apprentice Program is a rare opportunity for West County youth to join a group of their peers for a life changing summer of intensive urban agriculture, conflict resolution and leadership training, complete with mind-opening field trips, including a 4 day camping trip in the Redwoods. The Summer Apprentice Program is a paid summer youth employment program. During the course of this intensive 6-week program youth are placed on small crews at 5 of our community and school gardens where they learn to work together to grow fresh, healthy organic food for our community while developing meaningful skills.

We also host dynamic programs at 2 local elementary schools: Verde Elementary and Washington Elementary. These gardens are outdoor laboratories that brings classroom learning to life, teaching students everything from cooking, nutrition, literacy, math, and science to conflict resolution and leadership development. The garden also brings affordable healthy food to Verde School students and the North Richmond community.

Program Summary

POLICY PROGRAMS

Urban Tilth is committed to active participation in the public policy decisions made regarding food justice, nutrition and urban agriculture in West Contra Costa County. To honor that commitment we are working with local businesses and city council to develop an Urban Agriculture Ordinance that reflects intelligent guidelines for raising locally grown food and improving access to healthy, whole foods throughout Richmond.

In order to better accomplish this goal with the help of the Mayor’s Office and City Manager staff Urban Tilth launched Richmond’s first Food Policy Council. The Richmond Food Policy works to create a local, equitable, and sustainable food system based on regional agriculture that fosters the local economy and provides healthy affordable food for all people living in Richmond. Our first projects include a city-wide Policy Scan and comprehensive Food Mapping Initiative and the monthly Food Justice Film series that seeks to help deepen the understanding of Food Justice issues for community members.

DATA

Program participants = SAP apprentices = 47 apprentices Gardens Operating = 12

Berryland Greenway Community Garden Greenway Butterfly Garden Edible Forest AdamsCrest Farm Richmond High Farm and Garden Kennedy High Garden Washington Elementary Garden Verde Elementary Garden Lincoln Elementary Garden Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church Garden Wanlass Park Garden

Participant Demographics for Summer Apprentice Program

FINANCE REPORT

MAILER

Major Donors