CITY SLICKER FARMS
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Mission Statement
The mission of City Slicker Farms is increase wellness and build community through equitable access to healthy food, thriving gardens, and urban green space. The work of City Slicker Farms is a catalyst for healthy minds, bodies and communities and focuses particularly on low income communities and communities of color most vulnerable to food insecurity and health disparities.
About This Cause
Since its founding in 2001, City Slicker Farms has been at the forefront of the 21st-century sustainable urban farming and food justice movement, gaining national recognition as a leader in supporting low-income communities of color to grow food in the city. In those sixteen years, we have built over 400 backyard and community gardens, produced 300,000 pounds of nutrient rich food, and trained thousands of community members in organic gardening methods and environmental stewardship. City Slicker Farms’ newest project, the West Oakland Farm Park, is one of our most significant accomplishments to date. This project turned a vacant brownfield site into a thriving community park and urban farm, and created a permanent home base for our programs. Launched in June 2016 after deep community involvement in the planning and design process, the park is now a hub for sustainable agriculture, environmental awareness and action, and health education. Nowhere else in the Bay Area has an organization demonstrated the permanence of urban agriculture in the way that the West Oakland Farm Park proves possible, nor are there any similar parks in the city that integrate environmental and agricultural learning opportunities as fully as this site. All our work relies upon education, empowerment, and building solidarity. We know that the skills, knowledge, and ability to do this work exist among the people we serve. Our programs start by investing in individuals through education and training. Then we provide them with the essential tools, resources, and ongoing support to become food self-sufficient. In the process, we restore our neighborhoods through community building and environmental stewardship. Our History When City Slicker Farms was founded, there was nowhere in West Oakland to buy fresh, healthy food. The community’s health and well-being was suffering tremendously because of an absence of nutritious food coupled with pollution, poverty, and a lack of contact with nature. In 2001 a group of West Oakland community members decided they would help by growing healthy food right in their own neighborhood. There were plenty of vacant lots in the area and nowhere to buy fresh produce, so growing food in unused spaces was a natural fit. One of the neighbors, Willow Rosenthal, donated the use of a plot of land for the first City Slicker Farms garden on Center Street. The founding farmers were intent on maximizing food production at the Center Street Farm, so they formed committees, such as the “compost committee” and the “chicken committee” to make sure the work was done properly. City Slicker Farms was entirely a volunteer effort at first, and whatever produce wasn’t taken home by the farmers was put out for anyone to take for free. Most people, though, didn’t want to take it for free. They wanted to honor the labor of the farmers and honor their own ability to contribute, and so began the weekly Center Street Farm Stand. Willow Rosenthal became the organization’s first Director, and the founding farmers became an advisory board. The City Slicker Farms concept had immediate appeal to the West Oakland community because it built on a rich history of farming in African American and Latino families. People appreciated its practicality, too. They could use empty spaces in their neighborhood to grow food that was desperately needed in a neighborhood with a very high poverty rate, and liquor store on nearly every block but no grocery stores. For many people, City Slicker Farms awakened an almost-forgotten knowledge of food production. Many community residents could remember a family member who had grown their own food and how good that homegrown food tasted. Soon people were seeing potential gardens all over the neighborhood, including in their own backyards.