The BLOOM Food Justice Series brings together urban farmers, community gardeners, naturalists, young adults, city staff, and the broader community to consider food justice and food sovereignty in Seattle: these issues are especially relevant as BIPOC communities continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer we will recruit 7-10 BIPOC youth ages 18-25 to participate in a training program with a curriculum spanning Indigenous knowledge systems, Black Liberation, urban farming practices, plant medicines, the healing arts, ways to combat environmental racism and much more. BLOOM workshops, virtual talks and public programs will be open to community members free of cost. All virtual sessions will be recorded and uploaded on Wa Na Wari and Seattle Public Library’s Youtube channels. The programming itself is sited at the Wa Na Wari Giving Garden.

BLOOM partners: Seattle Public Library, Wa Na Wari, YES Farm, EarthCorps, the Black Farmers Collective.

BLOOM receives support from: Seattle Public Library, Hearthland Embers Fund, City of Seattle, and the Bullitt Foundation.

For hundreds of years, Black people have used sustainable harvesting and farming as a way of connecting to the earth and building self-determined communities. In the 1920s, African American farmers owned more than 16 million acres of land and more than 5.1 million Black farmers made up 14% of our nation’s farming population. However, in the face of ongoing systemic and institutional racism, the numbers of Black farmers slowly declined. Today, there are only about 45,000 Black farmers left in the United States - about 1% of the total population.

With all of this in mind, the BLOOM Series is centered in gardening as a practice of social justice and a tool for racial justice. A 2020 article for Resilience.org by Ashley Gripper states, “Danger lies in the face and narrative of urban agriculture being co-opted by White liberals and academics. It is presented as something new, trendy, and without sociopolitical and historical ties or influences.” Community-led initiatives are the key to long-term change for our community and changing harmful narratives.

The BLOOM Food Justice Series creates an opportunity to gather historically accurate knowledge about the history of Black and Indigenous work in feeding their communities. Connecting to the natural world through growing food has been used to build community, gather knowledge about health and nutrition, and develop collective agency. Food justice and food sovereignty are also both meaningful ways to foster cultural pride in what BIPOC farmers have done, and what they know. By creating BLOOM as a food justice practice our goal is to address and imagine ways to heal the effects of settler colonialism and long-standing systemic racism. As a response to the pandemic, BLOOM will have a public health focus on traditional food and nutrition so that communities can have BIPOC youth working as advocates for their families.