Our History
Florence Fang Community Farm sits on the land of the former Diana Street Farm, the last operating farm in San Francisco, active until the late 1980s. The one-acre farm is located on top of a functioning Caltrain tunnel and is surrounded by single-family homes and a dense population of diverse residents. The site features include an urban cul-de-sac, staircase, and views of Candlestick Park and San Bruno Mountain.
The land has been made a community site through an agreement between AsianWeek Foundation and CalTrain. Portions of the site are intended for housing development as part of a long-term sustainability plan for the community farm and the neighborhood.
Please see our press clipping section for archival news stories on our history.
THE PROJECT
The Florence Fang Community Farm is a community site for all San Franciscans, based in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in the southeast part of the city. Since our establishment in 2014, we have become the largest community farm and second most productive urban farm in San Francisco. Our community farm brings together a network of community groups and residents around policy issues of environmental sustainability, cultural diversity, and healthy living activities and eating practices.
The Florence Fang Community Farm started out as the Florence Fang Asian Community Garden, with a focus on serving Asian immigrants and sharing Asian gardening culture. Since our groundbreaking, we have expanded our mission to focus on the wider intergenerational and ethnic diversity that defines our local community. On September 25th, 2020, we announced our renaming and rebranding to Florence Fang Community Farm, to reflect our growth.
We aim to improve food security, increase healthy living habits, practice natural farming techniques, improve the environment, support neighborhood economic opportunity, and increase social connectedness within and between communities of color. Our farm also supports our community’s food sovereignty by providing a food source that is consistent with cultural identities and involving community networks that promote self-reliance and mutual aid.
Our farm is a living and breathing showcase of how gardening design, farming techniques, and biodiversity can be shared and celebrated across cultures and differences, primarily those that reflect our residents and participants.
Founding Advisory Partners: Asian Pacific American Community Center, Community Youth Center, SF Community Empowerment Center, Vistacion Valley Asian Alliance.
Founding Community Partner: Quesada Gardens Initiative.
Founded by the AsianWeek Foundation.
Groundbreaking: April 17, 2014.
THE PEOPLE
The Florence Fang Community Farm serves over 100 regularly participating families and has grown through the loving work of hundreds of additional volunteers. Participants come from all backgrounds and ages. Most of our regular farmers are senior Chinese immigrant women with limited English proficiency, while most of our volunteers come from youth and professional groups.
The farm is located in Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP). The BVHP neighborhood is among the most underserved in San Francisco, with disproportionately high health and economic disparities. BVHP’s lack of accessibility to healthy food was so glaring that USDA dubbed BVHP a “food desert,” and new research has introduced the label “food swamp,” where food is available but not necessarily healthy, affordable, or culturally appropriate. BVHP has two federal Superfund sites and over 300 toxic sites and severely lacks green space. In 2010, the area’s supervisorial district was 37% Asian, 23% white and 20% African American, with a 21% Latino population.
Farm Manager: Johnny Chen
Farm Coordinator: Joseph Le Thai
Farmer-in-Charge: Faheem Carter
Florence Fang immigrated to San Francisco in 1960 with her husband John T. C. Fang. She devoted her life to raising her three sons–James, Teddy, and Douglas–and to contributing to her new home city of San Francisco and her adopted country of the United States.
Mrs. Fang and her family opened a successful local printing business and became publishers of major newspapers in San Francisco, including the Young China Daily News, AsianWeek, Mission Life, The Independent Newspaper Group, and the San Francisco Examiner. Mrs. Fang and her family also operated Chinatown’s largest restaurant and became prominent figures in the community.
Among her many public service roles, Mrs. Fang has served on the National U.S. Small Business Commission, California Commission on the Status of Women, and the San Francisco Film Commission. As a result of her own life experiences, Mrs. Fang has focused her life on the causes of education and American and Chinese cultural exchange.
More information on Florence Fang here.
LOCATION
Diana Street
San Francisco, CA
94124
VOLUNTEER HOURS Saturdays 10am - 1pm Click here for more info