How it started for me.
When COVID-19 hit in 2020, I made the decision to move back home to New Orleans to be with my family during those uncertain times. Like many others, I found myself turning to gardening, cultivating food in my backyard. This experience deepened my commitment to growing my own food and shifted it to a central focus in my life.
I returned to San Diego in 2021 with the goal of continuing my work in the solar industry while pursuing my passion for horticulture. While searching for a place to live on Craigslist, I came across Chris Burroughs, who would soon become the founder of Garden 31. He invited me to be his roommate and grow food in his backyard. Little did I know that Chris had a powerful personal story; he grew up with a rough childhood in East County San Diego where faced all the challenges that come with it. After a very high stress level event he gave his life up to a higher power and was directed to helping his community and other communities like it through horticulture. He then created a business plan for the Non-Profit Garden 31. Read all about it through the Garden 31 website!
The mission of Garden 31 in a nutshell is to empower disadvantaged community members with the skills needed to teach others how creating a sustainable food system builds community health. We currently lease 2 farms in Vista where we run a program for previously incarcerated to apprentice as farmers with the goal of helping them open their own farm in their community after the extensive 3 year program. We also teach garden classes at 2 continuation schools in Vista Unified School District. In each of our programs, we spend time working to improve our Character – who we are and how we show up in life. We spend a lot of time on this because when we improve our character, we improve everything we encounter in our lives. This is the true transformation.
I work as a facilitator of the school programs on Tuesday and Thursday in Vista. I also work at the farms every other Saturday and some weekdays as well. We often do events like workshops, BBQ’s and more to build community and spread the love. If you’re interested, I’d love to meet you and show you how you can help. When you help us you’ll find you also help yourself and your loved ones by improving your character. You can help by volunteering, connecting us with others who may be interested, donating, or just spreading this post. We are currently planning to buy our own farm where we can have transitional housing to run our programs in a much more wholistic way, and we need all the help we can get.
For me, localizing our food source and sustainable energy goes hand in hand. I believe these two ideas will dominate our future if we want to have a healthy planet for the generations to come. I’m from New Orleans, where we don’t eat to live, we LIVE TO EAT. Food has always been at the center of my encounters with family, friends, neighbors, and communities. Good food creates good people and good relationships. I participate because I believe the current food system is unhealthy on many levels. This is one unhealthy system of society where I can make a real change in the world. I envision big farms that are more permaculture focused supplemented by local farms. These local farms can then be supplemented by gardens at schools, libraries, community gardens, and other local, community building gardens. That’s where I can help… and whenever a power tool is needed, this power can be harvested with solar panels from the never-ending sunlight that makes all life on earth possible. I invite you to join this movement. Contact me directly to discuss how you can be part of a healthy future.