Youth Summit at Alemany Farm


On Saturday, July 16, 2016 CommunityGrows hosted a youth day for urban agriculture for Bay Area teens at Alemany Farm. These eco-literacy teen groups included Pie Ranch, Friends of the Urban Forest, Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), Urban Sprouts, and the Cultural Conservancy7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6893They came together to celebrate each other’s work, and discuss their hopes, dreams, and visions for a more just, sustainable and peaceful world. After some ice-breaking activities that were loads of fun,7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_69307.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6932 Brandi Mack, of the Black Permaculture network lead an hour-long discussion and exploration about Permaculture, especially how it relates to youth of color today. Her talk was about how “Everything is in the Garden”, honoring the earth for our heritages and ancestors. 7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6944A delicious lunch was offered of hummus wraps, salads (provided by CommunityGrows), roasted veggie (harvested from Alemany Farm),7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6956 and hot dogs, buns and sauerkraut (provided by the Cultural conservancy), and dessert. 7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_69617.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_69547.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6953After lunch there were breakout sessions to make medicine bundles (workshop lead by the Cultural Conservancy), a mobile nursery transplanting activity (organized by LEJ), sketching of plants, making origami and other work activities throughout the farm. 7.16.16-Alemany-YouthSummit_IMG_6904This event was sponsored by Aetna Corporation, Nature’s Voices Project, and numerous CommunityGrows donors including Angelique Farrow, Steve Allen, Pam Jackson, Nancy Osborne Almquist, Avni Desai, Chuck Gould, Yvonne Koshland, Leah Cerri, and Christine Pielenz.