Planting Justice

06/24/2026

What could be possible in a world where everyone has enough food?

In week 2 of our Food Sovereignty Here and Now summer internship, interns explored the connection between fruit trees and prison abolition by engaging with trees in their communities that offer an abundance of food. Food scarcity is part of a larger cycle that keeps communities disenfranchised and struggling to meet basic needs. Our current capitalist food system has commodified fresh and nutrient-rich food while criminalizing communities that lack access. When profit is prioritized over people, scarcity becomes a feature of the system.

Through the art of cyanotipes, our interns were tasked with imagining what is possible in a world where everyone has enough food to live a healthy, full life. Thank you to Kate and Malaya for leading this powerful workshop and reminding us that art and imagination are a big part of creating lasting change. And thank you to Hiroyo for capturing all of the action during this workshop.

06/17/2026

06/17/2026

We will be closed on Friday, June 19, in observance of Juneteenth.

Both nurseries will be closed:

East Oakland Nursery
319 105th Ave

El Sobrante Nursery
5166 Sobrante Ave

We will reopen on Tuesday, June 23rd.

06/17/2026

🌱 WEEK 1 of our English Summer Cohort is done✅️

This week our youth explored the meaning of food sovereignty and how they can take an active role in creating their own food systems. Students also learned about the history of redlining and how these issues continue to impact our communities today. Thank you to Gus from Communities for a Better Environment for stopping by and teaching about redlining! ✨️

To connect our history and indigenous practice Andrea talked and taught about using acorns to make tortillas. Practicing food sovereignty means reconnecting with ancestral foods, and building relationships with the land and each other. Thank you Andrea for sharing your knowledge with us and bringing our interns together.

06/12/2026

This past Sunday, we hosted our farmers market inside the nursery for the first time.

It went even better than we expected.

Our vendors were happy, our community showed up, and we’re excited to keep this going.

Come see us next Sunday and support our local vendors.

📍5166 Sobrante Ave�El Sobrante, CA 94803

06/12/2026

Fresh fruits and vegetables are available every Monday at Elm Playlot.

Stop by from 1 PM–5 PM.

📍720 Elm Avenue�Richmond, CA 94801

Planting Justice and Pogo Park are working together to bring fresh food closer to the Iron Triangle community.

Come by, bring a neighbor, and help spread the word.

06/02/2026

🚨 CalFresh and people who rely on it are facing different changes to their benefits: like some adults (without dependents) now needing to fulfill work requirements within three months in order to keep their benefits. And with the East Bay’s growing rates of hunger consistently on the rise for the past four years, making sure our community is nourished won’t be a quick fix.

🌱 As we navigate our community’s growing hunger crisis, we know we need to come together and do things differently to ensure that every neighbor is nourished with dignity.

That’s where the Food Sovereignty Roundtable comes in! Regardless of federal policies, our community is united in co-developing resilient, hyperlocal food systems across our County.

📢 We invite you - farmers, growers, food suppliers and distributors, entrepreneurs and other leaders in local food sovereignty - to join us in this effort! Meetings take place monthly, alternating between Zoom and (in San Leandro or Unincorporated Areas) in person.

✍️ Sign up today to be added to our email list at bit.ly/acfoodsov

▶️ Check out our one pager (QR code in the slide above) to learn more. Also, some of our achievements to date include:
✨ November 2025 $1M Rapid Response Fund: Advocated for this Fund, launched by Office of Sup. Fortunato Bas, to mitigate the CalFresh freeze crisis by resourcing pantries and other community orgs within and beyond the ACCFB network

✨ County FY26 Food Funding: Won a historic County investment of $16.5M for partnerships-driven food recovery, procurement, and distribution services. Of the $16.5M, gave input such that $5.8M was set aside for equity-centered funding of community-based food sovereignty

✨ Trust-Based Partnerships: Deepening short- and long-term food system resilience by connecting partners who didn’t previously work together. Orgs collaborate on funding applications, pilot projects, and exchanging best practices to incrementally build our Spoke and Wheel system resilience model

ℹ️ Stay tuned for more posts from our Roundtable - including sharing more about how to navigate the CalFresh work requirements - coming soon!