CULTIVATING COMMUNITY
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Mission Statement
Cultivating Community grows sustainable communities by expanding access to healthy, local food; empowering children, youth, and adults to play diverse roles in restoring the local, sustainable food systems; and modeling, teaching, and advocating for ecological food production.
About This Cause
Cultivating Community works at the intersection of food, land, and racial justice. As a food justice organization we believe that people have the right to grow, sell, and eat fresh, nutritious, affordable, culturally familiar local food. We include and work alongside people least likely to have access to fresh, local food including immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers; BIPOC; low-income residents; and/or youth. Founded in 2001, our mission is to grow sustainable communities by expanding access to healthy, local food; empowering children, youth, and adults to play diverse roles in restoring the local, sustainable food systems; and modeling, teaching, and advocating for ecological food production. Over the years, we have grown to manage multiple complementary projects that help us meet the material needs of our community as we organize for systems change: - Two training farms for immigrant and refugee farmers produce over $240,000 of healthy food including $30,000 for food pantries including culturally familiar food grown by and for people from East and Central African countries including Angola, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo (DRC). - Marketing opportunities for farmers-in-training meet community food security needs. These opportunities include 8 multi-lingual farm stands that match SNAP and WIC benefits. - At 11 Portland locations we work with over 450 residents who have community garden plots; gardens are distributed equitably with a priority given to low-income households. - Youth-directed teen programs address the material needs of youth and families (stipends and vegetables); provide leadership development opportunities; and engage youth in identifying, addressing, and reflecting on issues in their own communities. - School programs engage elementary school students through classroom education and access to school gardens while addressing institutional barriers to in-school food that is local, fresh, and culturally relevant. We do our work in a way that is values-aligned. Our full values statement can be found on our website but it includes our commitment to Justice, Inclusion, Equity, Relationship, Compassion, Process, Learning, and Digging In.