Planting Justice and Dig Deep Farms & Produce (DDF&P) are proud to announce a new partnership on DDF&P’s hillside Cityview Farm. This partnership aims to afford DDF&P a greater ability to grow its own supply of organic fruits and vegetables for it’s Grub Box CSA while providing Planting Justice with an opportunity to expand it’s current organic farm work.
Staff from both DDF&P and Planting Justice will collaborate to create a roughly 3-acre urban food forest farm. This winter and spring, we’ll start with the infrastructure systems: an 8 foot deer fence enclosing the planting space and retrofitting the existing 20,000 gallon gravity-fed water storage and irrigation system. With these foundational elements in place, we’ll begin the planting of 1000 fruit trees and 1000 fruiting shrubs. In order to ensure the sustainability of the collaboration, Planting Justice will work closely with the team at DDF&P in a year-long mentorship program focused on the ongoing maintenance and care of the new food forest at Cityview. The permaculture design team at Planting Justice — which includes men who have made positive transitions from incarceration — will lead the project, train emerging leaders at DDF&P who are also in re-entry, and pave the way for even more re-entry green jobs for people coming out of nearby Santa Rita Jail.
Produce grown in the new farm will create new opportunities for re-entry green jobs in various sectors of the emerging local food system, including production, harvesting, value-added processing, and distribution. Fresh fruits and vegetables from City View farm will be included in DDF&P’s Grub Box CSA, farmers markets, and food hub programs that provide accessible healthy food to low-income people throughout San Leandro and unincorporated parts of Alameda County that currently have a severe shortage of fresh, affordable, organic produce. According to DDF&P’s website:
“The CSA Grub Box is a selection of fresh seasonal vegetable that you order and pick up at one of our designated pick up locations. The program was originally created by People’s Grocery in West Oakland and is now a collective project of People’s Grocery and Dig Deep Farms & Produce in San Leandro. The goal of Grub Box is to make fresh healthy and affordable produce available to people who have limited access to affordable healthy food.”
“Our program is very flexible to allow you to choose the subscription that works best for you. We have several sizes of boxes and you can choose to have your box delivered every week or every other week. You can also choose how many boxes you pay for at once and how you pay for them.”
With this new collaboration on Cityview Farm, Planting Justice will expand its ability to train and mentor new emerging leaders in the re-entry green jobs field, and DDF&P will be able to produce their own organic foods for their food distribution programs to increase the sustainability and affordability of their vital programs. Stay tuned for pictures, videos, and stories of our shared progress in this exciting new collaboration!
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