Community Partners
Urban Adamah Fellows spend one day per week interning at local community based social justice organizations addressing issues of poverty, food security and environmental stewardship. Our 2012 spring and summer fellowship partners are listed below:
City Slicker Farms
City Slicker Farms empowers West Oakland community members to meet the immediate and basic need for food security for healthy, organic food for themselves and their families by creating high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens. These spaces provide healthy, affordable food and improve the environment. City Slicker Farms serves all West Oakland residents, prioritizing people who have least access. Its farms and gardens demonstrate the viability of a local food-production system, serve as community spaces, empower children and adults who want to learn about the connections between ecology, farming and the urban environment, and give West Oakland residents tools for self-reliance. Urban Adamah Fellows work in City Slicker Farms gardens and support the organization in multiple ways.
Urban Adamah plays a crucial role in the ecology of the food justice movement of the East Bay. Not only is their farm site in West Berkeley is a hub of food production and community engagement but are the internship hours their fellows provide to our organization and other’s like ours, are invaluable. Each week, three Urban Adamah Fellows fellows travel by bicycle to West Oakland, where they work alongside City Slicker Farms staff and community members to transform this community. We plant seeds at community market farms, construct planter boxes from recycled lumber for backyard gardens, help with organic pest control, turn compost, care for chickens, and so much more. Our work is profoundly strengthened by the support of Urban Adamah.
Julie Pavuk
Operations Manager, City Slicker Farms, Oakland, CA
Cooking Matters
Cooking Matters courses teach people the skills that enable them to plan, purchase, and prepare healthy, tasty, and affordable foods at home. As a result they are better able provide nutritious meals for themselves and their families. Urban Adamah Fellows co-teach Cooking Matters courses at several sites in Oakland.
LifeLong Medical Care
LifeLong Medical Care provides high-quality health and social services to underserved people of all ages; creates models of care for the elderly, people with disabilities and families; and advocates for continuous improvements in the health of our communities. Adamah Fellows work with LifeLong clients to increase their access to healthy local food. This includes but is not limited to distributing food as part of a diabetes education class, running cooking classes for food bank recipients, and giving guided educational tours at the Urban Adamah farm.
Our clinic’s partnership with Urban Adamah has been of tremendous benefit to our patients, many of whom do not have access to fresh food that they can afford. Approximately 25 families receive produce and eggs donated by Urban Adamah each week. Every Tuesday morning at least 10 people are lined up in our waiting room by the time the produce arrives; many of them plan their weekly meals around this food.
Our Urban Adamah fellows recently facilitated a six-week gardening class for our patients. Some told us that they had never been to a garden before. Several mothers shared that they were grateful to have an opportunity to do something active in a safe space for their small children. Even the staff has benefited from our partnership: last month the clinic’s supervisors had a tour of the farm and came back very enthusiastic about continuing to work with Urban Adamah. We wish every community had a farm like Urban Adamah!
Ariana Jostad-Laswell
Lifelong Medical Care, Berkeley, CA
People’s Grocery
People’s Grocery develops creative solutions to health problems that stem from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods. Its mission is to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of the West Oakland community. People’s Grocery works toward creating a food system that meets the needs of the urban poor and develops programs and enterprises that produce and distribute fresh foods, provide nutrition education, promotes urban agriculture and creates local jobs. Urban Adamah Fellows work in the main People’s Grocery farm in West Oakland.
I absolutely loved working in the garden at the People’s Grocery. I valued being in a place that was such a stark contrast to every other part of my life, and deeply enjoyed connecting with the staff, volunteers and local residents. Thank you Max for integrating us so well into your work and the community!
Rachael Graber, Fall 2011
