Growing Justice youth (GJ) and CAN continue to build collective power to transform Watsonville, California’s food system, one dominated by high-input berries for global export. In partnership with Tierras Milperas, an assembly of campesino families stewarding 7 community gardens, youth plant milpa(integrated system of corn, beans, squash and leafy greens), prepare meals, share skills, and participate in decision-making with Tierra Milpera’s assembly. Please join CAN in supporting community-led processes for food sovereignty in Watsonville, CA and beyond.

“We inherit knowledge from older people, knowledge that can keep us from going hungry.”

– Growing Justice youth

This year, GJ youth connected with mothers and elders from Tierras Milperas to create healthy food alternatives rooted in the ancestral traditions practiced by campesino and indigenous communities in the global south. Together, we collectively designed one of the gardens, integrating the agricultural calendar with community dialogues and celebrations. We laid gopher wire to fortify garden beds, planted cempasuchil (marigolds) for a Fall harvest celebration, exchanged squash recipes during a fiesta de calabazas (squash harvest party), and made adobe bricks for an ecological stove with the mentorship of elders. Amid the pandemic, the community’s actions provided respite from social isolation and a harvest of organic, culturally-relevant nutritious foods. Most critically, we transformed a garden into a local food hub of, by and for the people that steward it.

Your contribution makes it possible for CAN to support collective power for building food systems rooted in justice. Every dollar you contribute will be doubled through December 31.