SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – An East Bay food justice nonprofit is working to rebuild after a devastating fire swept through its farm in El Sobrante.
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Just behind a quiet suburban street lies a four acre food forest with approximately 900 varieties of plants, home to the mother trees that the organization "Planting Justice" uses to supply its East Oakland nursery.
"You can come into the nursery and get a plum tree that’s been grown for a few years," team member Audrey Johnson told KCBS Radio. "That is from a plum tree here on this farm, so the impact reaches so much further beyond just this land" The nonprofit's mission is to promote land sovereignty and food security while providing jobs for formerly incarcerated people.
However, an accident last month sparked a fire which wiped out about 40% of its orchard.
"It's too early to tell what has been lost and what is going to remain, but it will be a big effort in rebuilding and regaining that kind of archive of what we had before," Johnson said.
"There's the tangible and monetary and financial effects of putting up new irrigation which you're hearing in the background so that the trees can get water," she continued. "There’s the potential to need to replant trees."
It's also a setback to plans for a community store called "the Good Table," which will sell jams and other products on a sliding scale.
Planting Justice is asking for the public's help to help it rebuild, through either financial donations or new volunteers.
"Just helping us do the work of stewarding land doing recovery work, also tending towards other parts of the farm that are producing and really full of life right now," Johnson said.
For more information on how to help, visit Planting Justice.
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