Shamera (top left) and Leon (bottom right) are just a few of the staff members and volunteers who helped to wash, cut, and package multi-colored carrots for February's Harvest of the Month. Students at each Charlottesville City School were given a taste of what one teacher called "the party carrots that dance in your mouth."

Cultivate is over-the-moon thrilled to be a new CORE MEMBER of HEAL Food Alliance! City Schoolyard Garden, Food Justice Network, and Urban Agriculture Collective came together to form Cultivate Charlottesville with a mission of integrating the approach each of those programs had to building a healthy and just food system. HEAL Food Alliance shares that vision saying, "No single individual, organization, or sector can transform systems in isolation. We believe that true transformation requires diverse skills, roles, and resources— and, it requires organizing together for real change." Cultivate is proud to be one of the HEAL member organizations "building collective power to transform our food and farm systems."

As Black History Month comes to a close, once again we are reminded that Black history is American history and should be celebrated all year long. As a nod to our new HEAL membership, visit the Black History Month Food and Farm Justice resource list they shared in February 2019. It highlights stories that you can read, listen to, and watch including the book Freedom Farmers by Monica White.

In Freedom Farmers White "offers a multi-dimensional analysis of the work of Black farmers and their mobilization efforts to respond to race and class-based structural inequities." In March nonprofit and FJN member Local Food Hub is publishing The Virginia Black Farmer Directory, which will showcase the people in the Commonwealth who are leading that same charge. See the Food Justice Network section below for more information and a link to the official Directory release happening THIS WEDNESDAY MARCH 2, 2022.

Farm to School Week in Spring 

We are so thrilled, now that Shamera has joined the Cultivate team as the Farm to School Coordinator, that we will be able to jump right into the 2022 Spring Semester. This semester, Shamera will be working to develop feedback loops with CCS students about their school meals. Our first steps are to (1) set up tables at Walker Upper Elementary, Buford and CHS, (2) begin cafeteria taste tests to include student voice in menu items that the nutrition department is looking to incorporate into the lunch, and (3) develop a Nutrition Committee at each of the 3 upper schools to delve deeper into student priorities for their lunch rooms. We are so excited to have the opportunity to hear from the experts on what they want to see in their lunch program.

Oh, and keep an eye out for our FIRST EVER Spring Farm to School Week! We are partnering with the nutrition team to highlight local salads, fresh/local chicken, potatoes, onions and fresh fruit. This Farm to School week will take place next week March 7 through March 11. More information to come!

Spring Seedling Project at CATEC

Where did the time go? 

It seems like just yesterday we were shutting down our growing operation for the season, and now It’s already time to start planting again! 

The administration at CATEC has been kind enough to let us use space in their school to grow our seedlings and our new room is coming along beautifully. Students in the Building Trades program are currently installing electrical outlets for our grow lights. We have thousands of seedlings to start, and having a grow room so close to where we will be planting our vegetables will save time and allow us to grow more food. 

We’re so excited about this upcoming collaboration with CATEC. Not only do we have the privilege of seeing the students flex their building skills, we’ll be working with Culinary Arts students too. This season, they’ll be able to see how the food they cook is grown right in the backyard of their school. This will give them a deeper understanding of our food system, and it will give us that opportunity to taste the delicious creations they make out of the produce we grow 

Since we have more growing space this season, we’ll be growing a wider variety of crops than we have in previous years. We’ll even be trying our hand at growing corn, which has been heavily requested by residents at market days. 

We look forward to seeing you at Community Market Days this Spring!

FJN PARTNER ANNOUNCEMENT

Fighting Black Farmer Extinction: The Virginia Black Farmer Directory Release

Local Food Hub invites you to learn more about an effort to support and empower Black farmers in Virginia March 2nd at 6pm on ZOOM African Americans lose about 30,000 acres of farmland annually, resulting in 98% of farmland being owned by white people. The issues behind this land loss are systematic and deeply ingrained in the fibers of America.

Local Food Hub’s Grower and Outreach Diversity Coordinator Briana Stevenson has pioneered an effort to build a resource that will help Virginian Black farmers connect with consumers, markets, labor, and other resources. Through an accumulated effort to understand how to aid Black farmers, the need to aggregate grower information and make it easily available became clear. The directory was built with the needs of farmers, consumers, wholesalers, and community members in mind.

The Virginia Black Farmer Directory is an online database that presents comprehensive biographies and sales information of Black farmers. The directory was developed in close partnership with the farmers it serves. It is designed to give voice to those who have been systematically oppressed and marginalized in their relationship with the land. The website consists of individual grower profiles that display biographies, products, sales outlets, markets, and more. 

Join Local Food Hub on March 2 at 6pm for a “tour” of the full website, an opportunity to meet the farmers, and a group discussion on how this tool can be most useful. 

Together we can move Charlottesville from a foodie city to a food-E(quity) place for ALL residents!

For more information or to join Food Justice Network full team meetings, contact Gabby Levet at gabby@cultivatecharlottesville.org

Here are a few of the Black podcasts we're listening to about food, farming, and activism:

Afros and Knives The Afros and Knives podcast is an award-winning, biweekly series that highlights the work and thoughtful conversations of Black women working and leading at the intersections of food and beverage, people and culture. We cover everything from the global impact of soul food to the influence of Black women on every part of Western culture. 

Black in the Garden In a world where all the garden fairies and most of the gnomes are white, the Black in the Garden podcast amplifies the experiences and expertise of Black plantkeepers. 'Conversations WILL be had,' at the intersection of Black culture and horticulture, on a range of topics that directly impact Black families and communities and our relationship with Mother Earth. Hosted by millennial black plant enthusiast and self proclaimed Plantrepreneur, Colah B Tawkin.

The Afro Beets Podcast The Afro Beets podcast is your source to garden to table content inspired by culture and soul. We use food as tool to explore the African diaspora and give you the knowledge on plants that will allow you to live your best life. Take a listen as I navigate life as a black vegan taking it one bite at a time.

Edible Activist Edible Activist is a podcast where dynamic people of color in the food and agriculture space share personal food journeys, stories and perspectives that stem from the land. Hosted by Melissa L. Jones, she interviews a diverse group of everyday growers, farmers, artists, healers, and other extraordinary individuals, who exemplify activism in their own edible way. This show records and broadcasts LIVE on Full Service Radio from the lobby of the LINE DC in Adams Morgan, Washington DC.

As an undergraduate, Gabby Levet was a UVA Sustainability Equity and Environment Fellow. She and former Cultivate Board member Professor Paul Freedman were both interviewed for an article published on the UVA Sustainability blog.

At Cultivate Charlottesville we believe that working together to grow gardens, share food and power, and advocate for just systems cultivates a healthy community for all.