LEARNING AND PLANTING TOGETHER

East Bay Urban Farmer Field Schools, EBUFFS, is a grass-roots learning program for urban farmers and growers serving our most vulnerable communities.  We have a vision and mission based on resistance to all forms of oppression and creating alternatives to the colonizing forces operating in our communities.

Each month we have a workshop on a different farm. Our March workshop was at Spiral Gardens in South Berkeley, a project founded in 1993. In 2003, two vacant city-owned lots on the former Santa Fe Railroad line became a model urban garden center. Twenty EBUFFS members met there and learned about the planting process.

Spiral Gardens has five projects:

• Community Farm provides land, materials, and information for volunteers to plant, and grow. It differs from other community gardens in that it is one big plot for everyone to plant and work on together. The organic food is distributed among the volunteers who grow it and given for free to people who need it.
• Nursery offers affordable food, herbs, and other beneficial plants.
• Produce Stand, year round, the Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens brings fresh organic fruits and vegetables into the community at the lowest prices possible from small local and regional farms.
• Education, community education is woven into everything we do, including seasonal schedules of free workshops and classes, descriptive labeling of plants, hosting school field trips, mentoring local youth, hands-on learning for volunteers, and answering thousands of inquiries per year.
• Food Policy, actively participate in collaborations and advocacy for public policy that promotes healthy food access.

For more information, you can go to our website, www.eastbayurbanfarmers.com, or to our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/eastbayffs/.  On the website we have a survey farm you can use to indicate what topics you need and also what knowledge and skills you would like to share.

Please feel free to contact hank@c-prep.org with any questions.