Who We Are?The Castlemont High School Green Scene is a unique one plus acre organic farm, educational garden space, permaculture forest, multiple greenhouses and the beginning of an outdoor kitchen all connected to a public high school in Deep East Oakland. For the past 11 years Students and Community Organizations through the Sustainable Urban Design Academy (SUDA) and Community Health Equity Academy (CHEA) have been planting seeds and amending the soil, working to restore a thriving ecosystem where once sat a vacant lot. Students experience every part of creating an equitable food system while nourishing their bodies and growing their knowledge of Food as Medicine. We spend time in both the garden and kitchen, learning to cultivate (how to grow the food), to process (how to harvest, clean and cook) and to distribute (how to store it, sell it, share it). We need $200,000 to continue cultivating and stewarding the farm spaces with students and families of the Castlemont community over the next four years.
Funding the Future, Funding the NowWhen the schools closed because of COVID-19, it was our collaborative approach and strong foundation that allowed us to rapidly respond to our community’s need for fresh fruits and vegetables. Activating teachers and community members to carry on the work of the students, we harvested and distributed over 2500 pounds of fresh food alongside OUSD Nutrition Services and the Alameda County Food Bank at the school’s distribution site.
As the Shelter-In-Place continues to evolve, we are beginning to look forward and design for the future when schools reopen and students return. We want to be ready for their creativity and excitement to carry on the work of feeding their community. Before school was closed, students had successfully popped up their first community produce stand of the year and were dreaming of their own hyper local produce box distribution business (CSA) and prepared food businesses.
Students are at the heart of all our work. Following the Black Lives Matter Movement, we feel the urgency of increasing capacity at the community level, with the focus on developing Black and Indigenous leadership. Students and Community members have been germinating and sprouting their ideas for many seasons and are ready to deepen our roots, grow our leaves wide, and share the fruits of our labor with the community. We ask you, what would it look like if we were resource rich? What kind of food sovereignty could we solve for if we had what we needed?
We are looking for funding or the raw materials to build an:
- Outdoor Standardized Processing Station to safely wash and package vegetables
- Money for an Equitable Wage for Student Stipends and a Community Member for Summer Program
- Off-Grid Solar Refrigeration Unit Solar Panels, Converter Box, Batteries
- Shipping Container
- Materials to start our CSA and distribution to local corner stores (boxes, rubber bands, bags)
- Pedal Power! Bicycles with trailers to haul vegetables and tools between the spaces on campus + a Pedi-cab to bring visitors from the entrance gates and parking lots to the farm.
We appreciate monetary donations and are also open to in-kind donations.
The people are in place, the ideas are clearly formed and, with your help, we can increase our food production and distribution by adding fundamental infrastructure. With this we can increase our impact on how many people are eating fresh organic produce and healing from the Green Spaces at Castlemont High School.
One Final Bite About Who We Are and Our HistoryOur programming is rooted in Castlemont High School’s two pathway programs of Sustainable Urban Design Academy (SUDA) and Community Health Equity Academy (CHEA) Students explore concepts of
Food Sovereignty,
Food as Medicine, and the importance of
Regenerative Design in their career related classes.
Our collaborating partners are The Butterfly Movement, Raised Roots, Black Earth Collective, Sankofa Gardens, Oakland Leaf, Phat Beets, Growing Together, Apothecary to the People, Planting Justice, Peralta College and Oakland Kids First. These organizations hold space and design programming for students, maintain our growing spaces and kitchens, and advocate for us in regional and national spaces.
Check out this video of Castlemont graduate and deep developer of the work, Brandi Mack of The Butterfly Movement on The Brilliant Resilience. Thank you in advance for your contribution to our farm program. Many blessings to you and your family.
More information about Social Good Fund, our fiscal sponsor. They work to establish positive influences for individuals, communities, and the environment by sponsoring charitable projects through out the country and the world.
