From a Parking Lot to Five Acres 🌿

Food should be affordable - it costs very little to grow. And yet hundreds of people in Long Beach, especially children, go hungry every night.

About five years ago, Lindsay Smith and Dina Feldman turned a vacant parking lot under the 710 freeway into a farm to make fresh food affordable again. That farm became Sowing Seeds of Change, where young adults with disabilities and young people aging out of foster care learn to grow food and build job skills.

I joined the board this year after Lindsay gave me a tour. I've spent my career on civil rights and economic opportunity, and this place puts both to work.

Now the farm has moved to a new site in North Long Beach with more than five acres. For something that started in a parking lot, that's an enormous amount of room to grow, but much of the land has been neglected. Your gift will help restore it, improve irrigation, and serve more youth.

Sowing Seeds of Change is raising $10,000 through Long Beach Gives, our citywide giving day on Thursday, September 24. My goal is to raise $1000 of that. Please give what you can, and send this page to anyone who cares about young people, fresh food, or green space in Long Beach.

Check out their amazing work on Instagram at @ssc_urbanfarm.

Thank you, 

Ehsan