San Diego Roots' Mission Statement:
San Diego Roots works to educate, cultivate and empower sustainable food communities in San Diego County.
San Diego Roots was formed to strengthen the local food movement in the San Diego region and to create a sustainable urban-rural partnership that brings healthy local food to our communities and sustains the working landscapes and people that feed us.
San Diego Roots' History
2001-2003: Save the Farm! (well, not quite)
Our work began in 2001 as an unincorporated affiliation of citizens, farmers, chefs, gardeners, teachers, and students rallying together to save a small farm from losing its land to development.
The land, a mere 30-minute drive from downtown San Diego, had been put up for sale and was slated to be replaced by a housing development, a predicament for a lot of farmland in Southern California. The citizens formed a working group called A Local Organic Farmland Trust (ALOFT) and began exploring ways to buy the property.
Seeing the need for professional land trust advice and affiliation, the founding members approached the Back Country Land Trust (BCLT), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which modified its mission statement to include the preservation of local farmland and adopted ALOFT as a project working under its non-profit umbrella.
We immediately began running public-awareness programs about the issue, including farm tours, educational lunches with fresh-picked ingredients, tabling at events and school outreach. Our intention was to purchase the land, put it into an agricultural trust, and lease it out to several small, local farmers. To further our educational goals, we wanted to create a farm education center on the property, bringing the community and school children the opportunity to learn about where their food comes from.
Despite our efforts, we were unable to buy the land, which was sold to local developers, ending over 100 years of farming and ranching on this property. This heightened our awareness of the plight of local farms and necessity of working to preserve the local-farm connection in our community.
2004: Getting our hands dirty
In 2004, our desire to learn firsthand what it takes to be a farmer brought us to create a farm on a small plot of land. In cooperation with a private landowner who offered us free use of a portion of his property, and working entirely with volunteers, we cleared the area, turned the soil, planted cover crops, installed irrigation, formed beds, amended the soil, and planted a succession of crops. Through this process we had the opportunity to work with a variety of individuals, both expert and novice, to bring several seasons of crops to fruition. Over time, the project became unsustainable as we were unable to house a farmer at the property. We learned that farming is not a commuter-friendly job.
2005-2006: We start the Morse Garden
Redoubling our efforts after losing the farm we formed to save, in 2005 we renamed ourselves San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project (still operating as a project of BCLT), and focused on educating the public about the importance of having local farms and locally produced food, and helping people in our area find local sources for their food.
In the spring of 2005 we began planning for an organic vegetable garden on the campus of Morse High School in Southeast San Diego (San Diego Unified School District). Our first few months there involved working with a single teacher in a classroom, educating students about where their food comes from, planting seedlings, and having them do research and reports about how food relates to health issues such as childhood obesity. The students also performed a campus survey, gathering information about where local families buy their food, how much fresh food is used in cooking, how many meals are cooked in the home, about the general awareness of local farms, as well as the cultural connection to food.
In June of 2005 we hosted a fundraising dinner at a local restaurant for the school garden. Several local chefs, using mostly local ingredients, prepared a meal for over 100 guests. Part of the program included a slide show and talk given by students about the future school garden and the connection between food and health.
Using the money we raised, in the fall of 2005 we broke ground on the garden. With all volunteer help, including students from the campus, we cleared brush and landscaping from an underused portion of the campus, rototilled and amended the soil (which was nearly entirely clay), created beds and began planting. At the same time, Morse High School -- a campus of 5000 students -- began creating several small learning communities within the larger campus. One of those communities, the Terra Nova Academy, was focused on science, environmental education and health, and the school garden became part of that program. It became the Terra Nova Garden.
We hosted a second fundraising dinner in June of 2006. The funds raised at that event have helped us build a greenhouse; buy material to build raised beds; buy soil, soil amendments, fruit trees, plant starts and materials; hoses, tools, plumbing and irrigation supplies; and other materials to further advance the program.
2007: Land search and partnerships
In June of 2007, in conjunction with the San Diego Unified School District, we (under the BCLT umbrella) were awarded a $30,000 grant to create and operate an after-school program in the garden. The program called “Seeds of Leadership” (SOL) involved several eight-week sessions with six to eight students in each session. Besides working the garden, participants learned public speaking, went on field trips to local farms and gardens, grew food for one of the campus diners, and sold excess produce to the community at an on-campus stand. After their successful completion of the program, students receive a $400 scholarship.
In January of 2007, after years of searching for a piece of property, we identified a parcel suitable for our goal of operating an educational farm. This property was ideally suited for our needs: it was level, had been farmed before, had wells and groundwater, was adjacent to a wildlife preserve, and close enough to most urban schools to be a viable destination for school field trips. After over a year of talks with two different land owners, we were unable to negotiate an acceptable, affordable deal as the area's real estate market went into a tailspin, and decided to walk away. However, this did not shake our resolve.
We began talks with other community groups and organizations -- notably Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Co-op and the San Diego Natural History Museum, about the advantages of creating a local, sustainable educational farm for our region. The Co-op has a long history of supporting organic agriculture in general and school-to-farm field trips in particular, so they were a natural partner in the project. The Museum is helping focus community awareness about global climate change and immediately saw the connection between food sources and climate.
Several talks within the community about the project helped us gather together a dynamic group of people willing to work as volunteers to make this happen. We started meeting weekly to map out a strategy and began making plans for a fundraising campaign to buy the land. Realizing the necessity to make decisions quickly and act on our own, in August of 2007 we began the process of organizing as our own non-profit organization.
2007-2008: Developing programs and becoming a non-profit
Early in 2008 we were approached by staff and faculty at San Diego City College, in the heart of downtown San Diego, about developing an urban farm on the school's campus. They had recently toured the garden at Morse High School and thought something similar would be a great addition to their school. After planning throughout the spring, ground was broken in June of 2008, tranforming what was a seldom-used lawn into a vibrant, active and beautifully alive (and delicious!) small farm. Apprentices and volunteers eagerly worked throughout the summer and when school opened for the fall, students, faculty and staff were amazed at what was possible.
Dubbed Seeds at City, this program has developed considerably since its inception, and in the Fall semester 2010, credited classes in urban agriculture will be offered, the first in San Diego County!
In August of 2008 we began our Food for Thought Film Series, showing the movie "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" at the Joyce Beers Community Center in Hillcrest. This was made possible by a generous grant from Ocean Beach People's Organic Food Co-op. The purpose of the film series -- always shown free to the public -- was to offer an easy way to discuss food and how people's food choices effect not just their own lives and health, but the health of the community and the world at large.
On November 15, 2007, after a year of organizing, bylaw writing and application-filing, we were incorporated as a California Public Benefit Corporation, and on November 1, 2008 we acquired our stand-alone 501(c)3 status from the IRS. Now the real work had begun!
2009: The year of growth
San Diego Roots experienced a lot of growth in 2009 as more people became aware of the vital role local food plays in a healthy community. To stimulate this, we developed our wildly successful Victory Gardens San Diego program, teaching folks how to grow food in their homes, schools and community, and doing garden installations at all these types of locations. With the help of hundreds of volunteers, VGSD installed 14 home gardens, provided assistance and material to four schools and seven organizations, and offered three six-session "University of Gardening" classes, one taught in Spanish.
In August of 2009 SD Roots produced an art/music/food/community event called Growing Places bringing speakers, farmers, chefs, educators, economists, political leaders, authors, artists, students and citizens together to discuss the importance of keeping a vibrant, local, sustainable and delicious food system in the San Diego region. The day-long event was wildly successful, raising over $3000 for our farm program, and brought hundreds of people together for a wonderful time. After this day, many more people became involved in Roots and our volunteer corps increased several-fold.
2010: Finally a farm!
In 2010 we found the land we had been searching for to start our first Farm and Education Center. In June 2010 we began leasing five acres from Suzie’s Farm owners Lucila de Alejandro and Robin Taylor, who have become friends and Roots supporters, and who wanted to see us get our farm up and running sooner rather than later. Our land is a beautiful five acres in the Tijuana River Valley we’ve nicknamed Roots Farm at Suzie’s. The farm is just what we were looking for: within close reach of many San Diegans (it’s only 15 minutes from downtown!); fertile, alluvial soils; plentiful water; mild climate; and supportive, engaged neighbors.
We started the farm off right with a kick-off party on June 26th. We had farm tours, seed-planting, music, local appetizers, local drinks, and great friends. It was also the kick-off of our Grow the Farm Campaign to raise $80,000 for our first year of the farm. For more information and to donate, click here.
We’ve started Wednesday and Saturday work days to engage anyone who wishes to get their hands dirty, and already many new volunteers have come out to lend a hand. In addition, we’re doing monthly community potlucks on the first Saturday of every month to foster a community space at the farm and meet lots of San Diegans interested in local food and sustainable farming.
About our Farm
Our farm is a local, organic, educational farm. It supports ecologically sustainable agriculture, offers community members the opportunity to connect with food sources and learn how to grow their own food, and promote personal well-being.
At the farm, we operate weekend workshops for the community in gardening, composting, cooking, vermiculture, beekeeping, fruit trees, seminars on food and health, natural pest control, organic soil amending, animal husbandry and more.
Because the farm is close to most urban schools, we are implementing a field-trip program with city and county school districts to bring local school kids to the farm to learn about where their food comes from. We encourage these students to start gardens at their own schools and help provide resources and volunteers to make that possible. We will also educate students and their parents about the relationship between food and health.
We are working with San Diego City College to establish a college-accredited courses offering certification in organic, sustainable farm practices. Course work includes plant propagation, organic soil science, wild farming, seed banking, water-saving irrigation practices, bio-intensive farm practices and gardening with native plants.
In the works for this fall are several visits from school groups from elementary to college, weekend farm workshops, and The Art of Agriculture Harvest Festival on October 2nd. Stay tuned to our website for updates and please come see the farm!
The Future
The future of the organization involves many of these broad elements, but at a much greater scale. Now that we've achieved 501(c)3 status and our own farm, we will host more fundraising dinners, activities and events to promote local food issues, and to educate the public about where their food comes from. Longer-range, our vision is -- through donations and grants -- to buy land and place it under a permanent agricultural/wildlife easement, preserving it as farm and wildlife habitat forever.
This is one of the best growing climates in the world, and we are learning and teaching ways to better take advantage of it for all who live here now and future generations.
