In 2021, Food for the Spirit began convening the Genesee Valley Black Farmers Collective, a community of Black farmers in the region who come together to discuss collective strategies to knock down barriers for historically marginalized farmers and producers.
In 2023, one of the collective members, Pamela Reese Smith, invited us to her home city of Rochester NY to meet Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) vacant lot gardeners she has dedicated her career to serving. We partnered with Pamela and Cornell Small Farms on a series of events to honor the leadership of BIPOC gardeners, reignite the flames for those who got burnt out during the COVID pandemic, and inspire new generations to get involved.
First in August, Migdalia Alvarado opened Sofrito Garden to us for a skill share. Sofrito Garden is an unforgettable home away from home for Puerto Rican plants and maybe the only place in Rochester you can find banana trees growing. Over the years, Migdalia invested enormous amounts of time, care, and personal finances into Sofrito Garden turning what had been a vacant lot with an out of use gas station into a thriving food producing sanctuary for people and pollinators. Her skill share was peppered with tips and tricks to cultivate abundance on a shoestring budget.
Then in early September, we hosted a weekend of gatherings during which we had the privilege to dialogue with folks to learn more about the context of vacant lot gardeners’ current struggles. The gatherings brought together BIPOC gardeners, service providers, and organizers of primarily white gardener networks in a relaxed way to share their stories and listen to each other. Despite the fairly specialized field of interest, many were meeting for the first time due to the ways Rochester is spatially segregated.
All were clear eyed about the antagonistic relationship the City of Rochester has with growers in marginalized neighborhoods. For years the city had been turning a deaf a ear to complaints about policy barriers and the absence of essential resources for community stewardship of public land. These are some of the top ones:
- Dispensing one year gardening permits rather than long term community licencing agreements
- Subjective and punitive evaluation of permit holders progress on ‘beautifying their space’
- No access to public water
- Distribution of soil, but soil specifically labeled as unsafe for food production
Many of the frustrations surfaced are common to community gardeners and volunteer-based informal initiatives broadly, but had specific inflections having to do with ways Rochester is historically and geographically developed, racialized, and segregated.
That being said, people find a way, and this group had many ideas and strategies to share with each other. We were inspired by this list and we hope you are too!
- Gardeners could form a buying club to make bulk purchases and get volume discounts
- Gardeners could develop a tool library for lawn mowers and other equipment needed to stay in compliance with city permit requirements.
- Gardeners could start a listserv to advertise relationships and opportunities like small businesses that have consistent sources for wooden pallets and five-gallon buckets.
- Gardeners could learn more about each other and continue socializing by hosting more skill shares, potlucks, and seed swaps.
- Gardeners could think through ways an intergenerational membership base might have variation in their schedules, skill sets, and social circles that could strengthen the garden in practical ways.
- Gardeners could learn about community land trust models such as the Brooklyn Queens Land Trust that permanently remove land from the speculative market and provide ideal leasing terms to gardeners.