The event featured speakers from Planting Justice, an Oakland-based plant nursery, farm, and community organization that empowers people impacted by mass incarceration and social inequities with the skills and resources to cultivate food sovereignty, economic justice, and community healing.
The event opened with remarks from Kaying Hang, senior vice president for programs and partnerships at the Foundation: “I come from a family of farmers in Minnesota, so the topic of ‘growing equitable food economies’ is near and dear to my heart. For this Speaker Series, we wanted to examine the connections between climate change, economic opportunity, and racial justice. And we can’t talk about justice without talking about access to healthy food.”
Starting with small gardens across East Oakland, Planting Justice has now grown to comprise a two-acre plant nursery boasting 10,000 varieties of trees, a four-acre food farm, a three-acre aquaponics farm, a pay-what-you-can community café, and more. Together, this ecosystem produces and distributes 10,000 pounds of food each year, employs 85 formerly incarcerated people with full-time jobs, and demonstrates a remarkable 2% recidivism rate over its 15 years of operation—a stark contrast to California’s 41% recidivism rate. Planting Justice has also expanded their educational, employment, and food distribution efforts into South Sacramento in partnership with Sacramento County and Three Sisters Gardens, a Native-led nonprofit organization. In our panel, members of the Planting Justice team reflected on their personal journeys with gardening as a vehicle for healing and restoration.
Otis Spikes, nursery manager at Planting Justice and an East Oakland native, credits Planting Justice’s living-wage jobs with changing his life: “My community didn’t have hope. A lot of people don’t even know how to get a job, so they get used to robbing and stealing, selling dope. So, just having a job gives you hope.”
Witnessing Otis’ journey from neighborhood corner to nursery, Covonne Page started his own journey with Planting Justice and now manages their aquaponics farm: “I never thought I would be urban farming or working with plants,” he chuckled. “But seeing the effect it had on people in our community was my reason to get into the work. When you land here, people are actually investing in you to be better, do better, and become leaders in your own community.”
Reentry Coordinator Sol Mercado Feliciano connected with Planting Justice while in prison and received a full-time job immediately upon reentry to society. “As soon as I put my hands in the soil and learned about how we connect to plants, I completely fell in love with it,” she said. “I went in at 19 and got out when I was 35, so [reentry] was a shock for me. Planting Justice gave me time to readjust, and when I started working, I hit the ground running and have loved giving back to my community.”
Planting Justice’s reentry efforts connect gardening to self-help groups across topics like PTSD, financial wellness, home buying, and more. Their education and youth internship programs equip thousands of students and 40+ paid interns with knowledge and skills for creating local and sustainable food systems. They also regularly distribute fresh food and produce across their communities, which lack access to healthy food and organic produce.
“Mass incarceration and recidivism is by design,” shared Gavin Raders, co-director of Planting Justice. “The inverse—freedom—is also by design. When you incarcerate one person, it’s not just one person—it’s their entire families, their entire universe. So, when a person like Otis doesn’t go back and stays free, his son, family, and everyone in his neighborhood are changed. We’re only going to build the world that we need to for our survival and thriving if we are doing it together.”
The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Ijeoma Ononuju, managing director of Estate Farms in Sacramento, spoke to the critical intersections of climate change and historical and ongoing inequities impacting Californians, a core component of the 2024 Speaker Series. Since 2014, Sierra Health Foundation’s Speaker Series has brought together thought leaders, funding and grantee partners, and community stakeholders to engage in critical conversations about the issues we care about. Learn more about Sierra Health Foundation’s Speaker Series.
Sierra Health Foundation forges new paths to promote health, racial equity, and racial justice in partnership with communities, organizations, and leaders in 26 counties in Northern California.