BAYVIEW BLACK ORGANIC FARMERS PROGRAM

Land and Spirit.

Our Bayview Black Farmers Program rehabilitates land and spirit in the San Francisco Bayview-Hunters Point community, and uses healthy, locally-grown, all-organic food to do it! We are providing local farmers with plots and farming tools to grow their very own organic, non-GMO vegetables at the Florence Fang Community Farm. This fresh produce will feed farmers and their families, stock food pantries, and even supply farm-to-table restaurants in the Bayview while simultaneously:

1. Creating a sustainable food system in a three-way network between residents, the farm, and food retailers;

2. Educating participants in basic farming skills and healthy living habits; and

3. Empowering participants, especially Black youth, to grow their own food, engage in physical activity, and take ownership of the food they eat!

Our ultimate objective? Help heal the Black community’s relationship with food and land!

FFCF’s Bayview Farmers Program is increasing food security and sovereignty in a neighborhood that is sorely lacking nutritious food and economic opportunities for residents. Together with Black residents, we fight the environmental and economic injustices disproportionately faced by the Black community.

Here at the farm, it’s important to us that we center the inherent knowledge and power of community. We define wealth beyond traditionally defined financial capital to include social capital and ancestral wisdom. Black communities already have the tools and knowledge to mitigate against climate change, exercise governance, strengthen solidarity, and preserve cultural ways of being.

Funds will go towards purchasing farming supplies including: organic soil, fertilizers, tools, sprouts and seeds, lumber, gravel, trellises, pots, mowers, wheelbarrows, and compost tumblers for our farmers.

The Bayview Black Farmers Program is led by our Farmer-in-Charge Faheem Carter. Faheem is a native San Franciscan and native Bayview resident. He is an African-American City College graduate in Horticulture who lives only a few blocks away from the farm! His goal is to inspire at-risk or neglected communities across the nation to realize a better future through sustainability and food justice.

Guided by Faheem’s vision, this project will empower Black residents of the Bayview to participate in creating an equitable local food system suited to the needs of the immediate community. It will also serve to beautify the area and offer a sanctuary to local birds, butterflies, insects, and amphibians.

OUR COMMUNITY

• We operate in Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP), the most diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhood in San Francisco.

• Within its five square miles, BVHP has 35,000 residents:

  • 36% Asian

  • 26% Black

  • 25% Hispanic

  • 8% White

• The area is a USDA-certified food desert with a severe lack of fresh, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food and is a harsh example of environmental injustice with over 300 toxic sites and very limited green space.

• Due to language, cultural, and socioeconomic barriers, residents of BVHP are drastically underserved by SF’s social programs.

  READ MORE ABOUT OUR BACKGROUND HERE