The Peoples' Farm of Los Angeles

Food insecurity and access to basic needs

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Food Security = Land Security: Decades of experience working in restorative justice motivates ALMA’s leadership to build pathways to healing and health through urban farming and food distribution. Team ALMA has witnessed the transformational connections made by sharing and preparing fresh, healthy food together, especially for families impacted by incarceration. ALMA urban farms are situated in parolee-dense neighborhoods, home to a majority of people of color with low socio-economic means. The precarity of these areas is due to redlining, civic neglect and industrial pollution, and these places are now deserts/swamps and green space and opportunity deprived. Framing the issues with equal consideration for people, plants and place, ALMA faces hard truths and enacts solutions. In expanding operations, ALMA is learning that land ownership/autonomy is essential for creating generation-spanning changes to repair generations of disinvestment and damage to truly empower communities.

ALMA’s method of “Relational Farming” and whole-person re-entry support programs are effective at creating food security, reducing rates of recidivism and inspiring healthy habits for community members usually left out of conversations around “wellness”. Health should be affordable and accessible to all Angelenos, not just the affluent or those in certain zip codes. The programs and initiatives ALMA will expand (in part) with this grant and other support will serve to demonstrate that another way of co-existing in our city is possible – one that emphasizes care, reciprocity and interdependence, even in the face of tremendous struggle. Regenerative urban fresh food production naturally requires land stewardship, which implies securing long-term land use or ownership. So, it follows that dignifying all lives – human and non-human – can be achieved through use of the best organic and regenerative practices on the ground and with one another. As such, it also follows that the human agricultural labor at these sites provide a decent living for the workers and their families, especially those who are system-impacted. Then the shared resources of green space, hyper-local fresh food production, supportive re-entry, employment and education programs can be woven into the social fabric for future generations. A well-nourished, food-secure and equitable community needs an infrastructural level of investment in order to dignify the lives of the most vulnerable.

In the long view ALMA and other food and social justice programs establish regenerative urban agriculture as an enduring community resource to nurture civic participation and pride in LA. In the near-term, ALMA’s proposes and implements real, lasting solutions to the challenges of overcrowded prisons and environmental injustice. Currently ALMA grows and distributes 125,000 lbs. high quality, organic produce per year. Yet we know nearly one in four Angelenos are food-insecure, so the need far exceeds this 1.5 acre harvest. Each Farm Stand serves 400+ families 2x/month, attracting over 10,000 visitors per year. In 2023 ALMA’s Job Training provided paid work and whole-person support for 25 formerly incarcerated individuals and created 15+ new jobs. Likewise, last year, 500+ children participated in education workshops. The plan is to increase these numbers threefold in 3 years; add 2-3 new urban farms; and cultivate a strategic leadership agenda, staffing and succession plans.

ALMA will address the ongoing need for affordable fresh food, experiences in the natural world, and community-building justice initiatives through existing core programs: 1) Expand reach of affordable food distribution via mobile units; opening additional Farm Stand site 2) Integrate farm-based STEAM learning into more curriculums at neighborhood schools 3) Incubate micro-businesses led by formerly incarcerated Team Members e.g. Brunch Service, Organic Plant Nursery, Pantry/Marketplace. Evidence of impact and program effectiveness: Farm Stand surveys, employee reviews; 2023 LA County/Larta Institute Report, local/national press, and staff interviews such as this testimony from Dennis, a program participant who is now a full time team member, “Healed people, heal people.” A 2023 research study on ALMA by Pepperdine University and the A-Mark Foundation states: “ALMA’s model is an example that successfully and directly addresses recidivism and food injustice in low-income neighborhoods.