Urban Tilth
To offer better alternatives to the charity that often emerges from food security initiatives, Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia suggests that people looking to change the food system follow in the footsteps of Urban Tilth. A community garden in Richmond, CA, Urban Tilth focuses on giving loca residents the tools and opportunities to grow their own food as a way to restore relationships to land and build a healthier, more sustainable community. They operate through a farm in North Richmond and a community garden in the heart of the city. Urban Tilth provides weekly CSA shares to their local community, and their garden is always open to any community member, creating a safe recreational space for urban youth to build a relationship with the land and each other. They are also host to several educational programs, and have begun to center healing in their conversations just as much as learning and growing.