The Richmond Foodshed Collaborative
Overview: The Richmond Foodshed Collaborative will empower teens to take leadership in creating a local “foodshed” on public lands throughout Richmond; this will eventually transform our community’s relationship to the commons and improve our local food supply. We will create a technical assistance team, an urban agriculture class, and a foodshed council to start and sustain numerous replicable models of municipal orchards, berry patches, and school and community gardens. Urban Tilth is the founder and lead agency of the Richmond Foodshed Collaborative. Other partners include: City of Richmond, Parks and Landscaping Division, the Service-Learning Program of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the Richmond Garden Club, the 5% Local Coalition, the Rosie the Riveter National Park and Richmond High School’s YME Club.
Purpose: Our collaborative is important because we propose something which (a) does not yet exist in any California community, and (2) will radically alter the way our community engages with public lands. Throughout California there exist numerous exemplary projects which engage teens in urban agriculture to address serious food-related health and social justice issues facing our youth. However, not since the World War II Victory Garden movement, has any community engaged in urban agriculture at a scale which significantly impacts the food supply or health outcomes at a community level. No urban communities in California produce even 1% of their own food supply. We believe that by taking a systematic, community-wide approach to foodshed development and empowering teens to lead this effort, Richmond will become the most food self-sufficient urban community in California and the nation.
The Richmond Foodshed Collaborative has received funding from the Stewardship Council. We will announce details about the first Richmond Foodshed Council as soon as the contracts are finalized. Urban Tilth has already begun providing technical assistance, organizing community foodshed events, and developing an Urban Agriculture and Food System Class as part of the Richmond Foodshed Collaborative.
