Earth Activist Training: Bayview Hunters Point project

Since 2006, Earth Activist Training has been working to support two community gardens in Bayview Hunters Point, a predominantly African-American, low-income inner city neighborhood in San Francisco, plagued by toxins, gang and police violence, and lack of access to fresh food. We have worked in partnership nurturing with Hunters Point Family www.hunterspointfamily.org, an organization that runs violence prevention and food justice programs for at-risk youth.

We've planted, we've weeded, we've volunteered hours of training time with the youth and the garden coordinators, and we've brought in resources—from compost tea to the Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour (see www.commonvision.org for more information).

seed delivery day

Many thanks to The Living Seed Company for donating seeds for our garden projects! For every ten packages of seeds they sell, they donate one to a youth garden!

planting the new seeds at Bayview

In June of 2010, Starhawk from EAT together with Lena Miller and Jasmine Marshall of HPF attended the US Social Forum in Detroit. Read about it in the archives on www.starhawksblog.org.

A big thank you to all of you who have donated to support our work! And a special shout out to Ron Walton and the folks at Recology, who have supplied our gardens with compost! Check out their site at www.recology.com.

fresh greens

In the Fall and Winter of 2010 and 2011, EAT and HPF expanded our joint training programs to create Emerald City, a collaborative project in food justice and green entrepreneurship. Our goal: to transfer knowledge and skills in regenerative design to the Hunters Point community, to train youth not just for green jobs but for green careers and leadership.

After the success of our initial program, in which ten students received permaculture design certificates, Emerald City began a long-term internship program in February, 2012. Modeled on traditional African Rites of Passage, we work with young adults to develop both skills in organic gardening and food production and the personal growth and development that makes for community leadership. Jay Rosenberg, one of the founders of Hayes Valley Farm, is our lead teacher. Senegalese artist Charles Dabo, and Yoruba Priestess and author Luisah Teish, are our mentors.

We're starting small, with just six trainees and funding for two months—thanks to all of you who have supported our projects and to The Fifth Sacred Thing film production for seed money!—but we really, really want to expand to become a long-term program able to provide for a larger number of trainees and more hours of learning and paid work each week. We are so grateful for any financial support that you can offer!

Starhawk will be blogging about this project on www.starhawksblog.org.

You can make a secure online donation in any amount you wish through Network For Good. In the Program Designation box, please choose "Bayview Project" or "Emerald City." Thanks for your support!

planting fruit trees