Alma Backyard Farms

In response to ongoing community need, ALMA Backyard Farms will expand the Farm Stand as their LA2050 initiative for 2025. ALMA's forthcoming mobile units and expanded education programs will serve more Angelenos, create greater access to the greenspaces in disadvantaged neighborhoods, while increasing the volume of fresh food and healthy meals produced and distributed. Farm and nutrition workshops, events in nature and supportive re-entry services including more equitable jobs created will build community as ALMA continues their mission.

For a decade ALMA Backyard Farms has provided nourishment and healing to Angelenos through urban agriculture and healthy re-entry programs. ALMA operates at the intersection of restorative justice and food security, reconnecting communities impacted by incarceration with jobs, food and friendship. Dignity and beauty lead the ALMA’s Farm Stand as a successful model that reverses the story of scarcity and disenfranchisement in South LA to one of a proud, healthy, food/resource-secure community deeply connected to the land and each other.

ALMA Backyard Farms restores and upholds Los Angeles as a city that unlocks potential for people, plants and place. ALMA's success is proven through urban farming operations and restorative job training programs wherein: (1) People formerly incarcerated have opportunities to give back. (2) Plants grow and feed people facing food insecurity. (3) Once neglected urban spaces are transformed into productive organic farms and places for nourishment. These are brought together at ALMA's Farm Stand to model environmental justice and food security.

ABF's project unlocks the potential of the formerly incarcerated to serve as caretakers of their communities in LA through urban farming.