February 22, 2022
City Manager's Office
DATE: February 22, 2022
TO: Mayor Butt and Members of the City Council
FROM: Shasa Curl, Interim City Manager
Joe Leach, Director of Public Works
Greg Hardesty, Parks & Landscaping Superintendent
Gabino Arredondo, Project Manager
Samantha Carr, Environmental Manager
Subject: Urban Tilth Presentation
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There is no financial impact in receiving this report
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
Click or tap here to enter text.
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
Urban Tilth will present on the various areas of growth in their organization related to urban agriculture, youth
employment, community clean-up efforts, and activities
along the Richmond Greenway in partnerships with
residents and the City of Richmond.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
RECEIVE a presentation from Urban Tilth related to their growth in the areas of urban agriculture, youth
employment, community clean-up efforts and activities
along the Richmond Greenway – City Manager’s
Office/Public Works Department (Shasa Curl/Joe Leach
620-6512).
AGENDA
REPORT
February 22, 2022
DISCUSSION:
Background
Urban Tilth’s mission is to inspire, hire, and train local residents to cultivate agriculture, feed the Richmond community, and restore relationships to land to build a more sustainable food system, within a just and healthier community. Founded in 2005 to help build a more sustainable, healthy, and just local food system, Urban Tilth has emerged as a local and national leader, a catalyst drawing together a variety of individual, discrete initiatives into a web of integrated, food- and community-focused efforts. They farm, feed, forage, teach, train, build community, employ, and give back.
Urban Tilth supports the Richmond community grow their own food; train and employ young people as “home grown experts”; teach local residents about the relationships among food, health, poverty, and justice; and forge partnerships with local small farmers to increase demand for their produce. Urban Tilth has grown and would like to update the City Council and the community on their activities and initiatives with special attention to collaborations with the City of Richmond along the Richmond Greenway.
Urban Tilth has Grown
After 17 years of serving the greater Richmond community, Urban Tilth has grown, starting from their first garden on the Richmond Greenway at 6th Street to currently operating six school and community garden programs and one three-acre urban farm that they now own after completing the purchase in 2021.
Urban Tilth has created jobs employing 52 people year-round with wages starting at $18.50 and also offering medical, dental, life insurance, paid sick leave, COVID-19 and vacation, retirement savings, and an annual wellness fund allocation for all employees so that they can invest in the physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. 98 percent of employees are people of color. Urban Tilth also invests up to $1,000 per employee in supporting their personal and professional development plan. In addition, each summer they employ 30-40 youth in the Summer Youth Apprenticeship Program which is now in its 15th year of existence.
Urban Tilth is the fiscal sponsor for several inspiring and catalytic organizations and initiatives including Rich City Rides, Moving Forward, Cooperation Richmond, Richmond Our Power Coalition, Richmond Grows Seed Library, Richmond Tool Lending Library, and It Takes a Village.
Urban Tilth continues working in schools. At Richmond High School, they teach two elective courses, (Urban Agriculture Farm to Table), that qualify for college science credit serving 80 students each year. The course includes hands-on learning with academic course work introducing key concepts in biological sciences, bi-weekly cooking classes, and bi-weekly farm stands for students, parents, and teachers. At Verde Elementary School, they have operated a garden for over 15 years, and now
February 22, 2022
serve all 400 students at Verde elementary offering them vital outdoor enrichment activities to offset the intensity of the push to catch kids up after the loss of learning time during the pandemic. This takes the form of garden recess activities and outdoor garden activities developed with Verde teachers to support their curriculum.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program
According to Urban Tilth, the most impactful growth has been the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program. It serves West County (400 families) each week a 10-15 pound box/bag of fresh locally grown produce. 200 of these families receive the box for free. Of the 200 free box members, many families live at public housing sites (Crescent Park, The Barrett’s, Nystrom Village). Urban Tilth started serving Nystrom Village during the pandemic as a part of their pandemic response partnership with the Richmond Housing Authority (RHA). In 2021, Urban Tilth delivered 15,583 boxes and, in all, distributed 128,239 pounds of produce. 17 percent of the distribution (21,876 pounds) was Richmond grown at Urban Tilth farms and gardens. Urban Tilth attributes being able to serve many families due to partnerships with seven other small family, BiPOC, and female led regionally local and sustainable farms creating vital market access for these marginalized farmers and bringing more, healthy organic, and chemical free produce directly from the farmer to where its most needed. Urban Tilth also has a partnership with Lifelong Medical – where doctors at Lifelong are running a pilot Veggie RX program with Urban Tilth prescribing fruits and veggies as preventative medicine which will be covered by the Contra Costa Health Plan via a new state initiative.
Richmond Greenway Activities
Urban Tilth’s work began and continues on the Richmond Greenway. For over sixteen years, they have dedicated staff time and thousands of volunteer hours helping to maintain the garden and Bring to Life the Greenway through inventive Community events and activities such as MLK National Day of Service, the Annual Fruit Tree Giveaway, UNITY Park Roller Disco, Books and Breakfast, Summertime Movies, Halloween Land, and the Gratitude Walk, as well as two regular monthly volunteer days on the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays, and a weekly free farm stand at Unity Plaza. Urban Tilth has five full-time equivalents (FTEs) devoted to the Richmond Greenway. Not only do they take care of Urban Tilth’s Adopt-a-Spot gardens and plan and host community events, they also clean the restroom, dump the trash cans, collect trash, and dumped materials, report graffiti, pick up discarded needles, and weed and mulch the landscaping. Each year Urban Tilth raises $300,000+ to continue the work on the Richmond Greenway.
In 2021, Urban Tilth launched a new Richmond Greenway Newsletter that goes out each month in print and online to help neighbors and local residents stay informed about what’s happening on the Greenway and how they can get involved. Urban Tilth launched an anti-dumping campaign to address the rampant illegal dumping on the Richmond Greenway including City support for a monthly dumpster so that low-income
February 22, 2022
residents can properly dispose of their oversized items and access trash without dumping on the park.
North Richmond Farm Project
For the past seven years, Urban Tilth has been developing the North Richmond Farm.
The North Richmond Farm project involves work to restore soils and developing a farming operation. Urban Tilth is now embarking on major capital improvements that will bring a permanent farm stand open seven days a week to North Richmond, as well as a Community Commercial Kitchen, Cooperative Café, Community Room, Watershed Center and Amphitheater. This year, Urban Tilth is working with Contra Costa County through the X Project to extend the sidewalk and bike path to the farm so that there is a safe, active transportation corridor connecting the residential area of North Richmond to the North Richmond Farm. Urban Tilth will also be building an additional rain garden along Fred Jackson Way, beginning the installation of all farm underground utilities and permanent farm supporting infrastructure. Urban Tilth has concerns about the development of 411 Brookside Drive where they believe the proposed four-story warehouse adjacent to the farm would reduce solar exposure on the farm significantly undermining their seven years of work on the project and all the positive impact.
Urban Tilth Call to Action/Get involved in 2022
Urban Tilth would like to invite the City of Richmond to have a deeper partnership on the Richmond Greenway by supporting their work and helping to remove barriers so that they can serve the community better and offer more programming.
Urban Tilth is currently working with the City Manager’s Office and Community Services - Recreation Division to create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City to recognize their work, create a more formal partnership, and address some of the areas that inhibit their ability to serve the community.
Urban Tilth Highlight Plans for 2022:
MLK Day of Service - over 275 volunteers joined!
Books and Breakfast at Unity Park
Annual Fruit Tree Giveaway
o 300 trees will be given away this year
o 150 at 6th street and 150 at 16th Street
New Community Mural to beautify the area by playground Earth Day of the Greenway
Summertime Movie Series
Summer Youth Apprentice Program
Annual Unity Park Roller Disco
Halloween Land
New ADA accessible garden (hopefully partially funded by the CDBG)
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
February 22, 2022
Attachment 1 – Greenway Newsletter
Attachment 2 – North Richmond Farm Project Overview