La Cosecha Colectiva
La Cosecha Colectiva
Project Budget: $20,000
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
www.eycej.org
EYCEJ proposes to develop and implement a regional decentralized community garden through our LCC Program. Currently the program has about twenty households, and has been growing in the cities of Commerce, and Long Beach. LCC promotes public health through the consumption of homegrown organic produce giving residents access to nutritious produce that may not be otherwise available to them. LCC participants will meet on a bi-weekly basis to participate in a program check-in.
Once produce from gardens has begun to grow, food exchanges will occur along with the check-ins. They will receive support from EYCEJ in order to increase successful gardening. Through quarterly workshops and demonstrations, residents will gain an understanding of the fundamentals of a successful eco friendly garden. This education will include a focus on the importance of non-GMO seeds, water conservation and understanding of how goods movement is affecting our food and health.
Participants will find out where their food is currently grown and how it gets to stores. Examples of previous workshops include: Medicinal Herbs, Gardening 101, Composting, and Water Drip System Installation. Members will be introduced to seasonally appropriate edible vegetation, and EYCEJ will use the surrounding environment to highlight indigenous plants and their relationship to water conservation and environmental stewardship.
We will host four seasonal workshops called Seasoning the Seasons, which focus on learning how to utilize fruit trees and vegetation found in our local neighborhoods and LCC home gardens to create delicious and healthy meals for our families. We will discuss the nutritional benefits of the vegetation found in our neighborhoods, connecting the nutrients to specific seasons. EYCEJ is already building leaders through our Youth In Action program and Adult leadership program.
By incorporating LCC, areas that have been identified with “food apartheid”, our communities will have access to quality home grown food and build networks to allow them to grow the social networks needed by working poor, immigrant and POC communities.
EYCEJ has been a leader in environmental health and justice in ELA SELA and Long Beach. After stopping Exide from continuously spilling lead into our communities, they have been able to show communities that they can have healthy sustainable food without having to leave their communities. As someone that has benefited from going to their ELA Cosecha meetings, they really build a sense of community. Bringing this sense of community to SELA will only increase our ability to have a unified voice in our community.
There are no healthy supermarkets in this area, no trader joes, sprouts, not even albertsons or ralphs. All we have are liquor stores. Our kids also have no idea where the food they eat comes from. In this community, so many working parents have to depend on the myriad of fast food places around to feed their children. I want my children (I’m currently a parent of a 5 month old) to understand where food comes from and what is healthy for our bodies and for the environment. Please support this project so that this community could benefit from these lessons.
Thank you.
La Cosecha Colectiva has helped my family and neighbors grow our own vegetables to bring to our table. Not only did the project provide my family with seeds, The Cosecha Colectiva built my garden bed and gave us fresh soil so we can grow right on our own property. I want to see this grass-roots projects grow so it can benefit more families outside of my own community because everyone deserves access to fresh and healthy produce.
I think this is a great program that helps communities with the awareness of nutrition and organic produce.
East Yard and La Cosecha do great work in the community!! This is amazing, yes yes yes
La Cosecha Colectiva helps communities have access to healthy food options. Many communties like those in SELA don’t have easy access to healthy food. It can be too expensive or too far away. Usually they’re surrounded by food that is not healthy. And it’s not only about food, working together allows a person to have a well being. LCC will allow SELA grow healthy not only through food but also through teamwork.
This is a very needed and important program. I fully support it.
This is a necessary program in our communities, which have low quality food or no access at all to fresh groceries.
Cosecha Colectiva has helped so many youth and elders come together in the community to learn together.
I feel that this project, like most urban community gardens, will be a great addition to life in SELA. It’ll provide fresh food AND valuable skills for the community, especially one that’s been denied healthy food in many ways.
Amazing work
Cosecha can help the community grow our own food in a food desert area that is already contaminated
Cosecha will help develop capacities and be healthy in our food intake
I was part of founding La Cosecha Colectiva as a member of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, before joining the staff. Addressing the lack of access to fresh and organic produce is at the heart of the project given the amount of food warehousing in the area, which comes through our communities but doesn’t stay.
I fully support this project and believe that EYCEJ is a great model for other grassroots organizations. The communities that EYCEJ works with are in food apartheid areas (read food desserts) and are in dire need of fresh quality produce. Not to mention that most of their soil is contaminated with lead and other heavy metals. However, EYCEJ equips community members with the knowledge and tools needed to become food self-sufficient.
Community connectedness, and community interdependence is a beautiful thing.
This project not only teaches people of all ages to conserve but it builds community empowerment. And helps seniors and families who are on a tight budget to have much needed organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
La Cosecha Colectiva (LCC) will teach and help families in SELA grow their own fresh produce to develop healthier diets and veer away from fast food. It will also assist low-income families who have food insecurity and have difficulty accessing affordable and nutritious produce. LCC is an essential program of the community.
I joined La Cosecha Collective during my first year at East Los Angeles College. At the time, I had my own garden and wanted to garden with other people from my community. This was the first time I began organizing around environmental justice issues with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and addressing the lack of access communities have for fresh, organic produce. As a member, funding will allow LCC to establish a physical community garden (It is currently a decentralize garden). I fully support this project and believe is can create a new community space in Southeast Los Angeles.
Cosecha ayudaria a familias mantener su salud
Love la cosecha ❤️
I think this is a great opportunity for people of all ages to participate in.
La Cosecha Colectiva is an amazing project working to address the lack of healthy foods while also helping youth become leaders in our communities. I fully support this project because it will continue to nourish the minds and souls of folks in our community for many, many more years to come.
SELA community is in dire need of healthy food options. Community gardening is a great project that will teach the community how to grow their own healthy food and have healthy options for their families. Growing up in ELA, I always saw news outlets and heard of other communities having gardening classes within their schools and it was a skill I very much wanted to learn but never knew where to look. Now, with this project, the SELA community may have the opportunity to learn how to be self-sufficient by growing and cooking their own food, in their own backyards.
This program appears to be benefit the community by raising awareness of eco friendly gardening
I believe this project will be very beneficial to many families by teaching the communities how to grow their own food, reducing the risks of eating rotten, contaminated fruits and vegetables. Overall it would be providing a more healthier lifestyle to people.
Community gardening is a Great project to bring into areas where grocery stores are few and far between. Growing up in ELA, I never knew what Sprouts, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or even Ralphs looked like! It wasn’t until I was old enough to get out into bordering cities that I noticed the lack of “healthy” grocery stores around me, and the ridiculous amount of liquor stores and fast food places surrounding us. This project can change this! It can provide a way for the families in SELA to learn gow to grow their own food and prepare healthy meals for their families.
I strongly believe that this project deserves to have the support not only because this project brings people to gather and spend time doing something productive to their lives but also because I believe all human deserves to consume organic products not only the people in the high class.
Fully support this idea! Great and much needed program in our communities. A great way to help locals have some access to fresh food and groceries which we all know lacks plenty in these communities.
This is a great project to show our local youth the alternatives in healthy eating they can have since all they see is fast food chains in every corner . It can also provide a way for families to learn how to effectively prepare healthy meals for their families.
Yo apoyo este Proyecto de EYCEJ de la cosecha colectiva para mejorar la salud de nuestra comunidad.
Gracias!
Miguel Dominguez
I really think this project helps provide food and the knowledge of how to grow food in an area that has very little access to food while providing a venue to build cross cultural, cross generational and cross gender relationships and support.
As a commerce resident, I believe this project is important especially because it wil promote public health and a sense of community.
This would be a great opportunity for families in the community to come together and grow their own produce for a healthier tomorrow.
Farming is what I’m looking more foward for!!! To have it for some days!!! We need east la to be more healthier and have better healthier wholes food markets and all of that goodness!!
I support La cosecha colectiva because it will bring our community together and will teach adults and kids to garden.
La Cosecha Colectiva is awesome program !!
My aunt loves being part of it!
I support programs that help build community capacity. Programs that build the ability for working class communities of color to continue to be able to access healthy produce by growing it themselves and supporting their neighborhood is something we should model across the US. We need to support more locally based initiatives.
This program is amazing and deserves all the support it can get!!
I joined the cosecha collective because there isn’t enough organic produce in my community. Please help the collective grow!
La Cosecha is doing amazing work! Bringing healthy food and more importantly education on food subsistence to communities that have to work around contaminated soils and lack of accessible healthy markets. They are doing what our officials should be doing for us! Bringing these opportunities and resources to SELA will only help the community to flourish and thrive.
I hope this program can continue to grow. As a teacher, I see that many of my students do not know where the food they eat comes from. I would love to even spread this to the school districts.
I would love to see the cosecha grow. Now that I am a homeowner with space to grow my own food, I don’t even know where to begin but I’m looking forward to being a part of this group for myself and for my community.
This would support others in living a healthier lifestyle while making it affordable for everyone.
Community gardens are important to build strong relationships, to gain and share knowledge to others, and to live a healthy lifestyle. I would love to see La Cosecha Collectiva grow their roots to the rest of their communities by bringing organic produce to their homes and educating them on eco friendly gardening practices.
I would love to see La Cosecha Collectiva spread their roots to their communities by sharing their organic produce and spreading their knowledge on eco friendly gardening practices.
Cosecha is about building community, building skills, and valuing our neighborhoods. This is what cosecha colectiva does
This would definitely be an excellent project that would benefit families especially our children.
I feel that this project will help SELA grow healthy because it provides a space for the community to join forces while elevating the importance of fresh foods for a healthy diet, foods that are grown in their community for their community.
“Food deserts” is actually a term I learned through service learning with EYCEJ and I am an Environmental Science student. There is a serious lack of education regarding this topic and this organization is doing an amazing job of communicating and fighting this issue. We need more community gardens like this one in low income neighborhoods! Please support this project!
This is an amazing program!!!