At a time when Black communities nationwide face food insecurity, and the ongoing government shutdown threatens funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), local programs are stepping in to not only offer sustenance, but also highlighting the power of agriculture as a means toward opportunity, renewal and liberation.
In Northwest D.C., Common Good City Farm (CGCF) and Howard University’s (HU) Halo G.R.E.E.N. Garden have joined forces, offering students mentorship opportunities that will help both green spaces flourish, and benefit the surrounding community by providing them with opportunities focused on nourishment and revitalizing people’s connection with the land.
Kweli Zukeri, an advisor to the student-run garden, established the partnership with Halo G.R.E.E.N. Garden as his final project in CGCF’s Certificate Program in Regenerative Agriculture, making possible a collaboration that both organizations have desired for a while.
Now, Zukeri hopes the initiative helps students connect with the land and tap into their ancestral agricultural roots, steering them away from the notion that farming is negative— a narrative caused by the generational wounds of enslavement in the United States.
“Land is power,” Zukeri told The Informer. “If you don’t have the land, you don’t have access to creating your future, your destiny. So it’s just really important to restore that relationship to [the] land and change that narrative.”
Zukeri began advising Halo last year and took the farm’s regenerative agriculture course to be better equipped to help mentor students in sustainable and holistic farming practices. The partnership will allow students to gain support and knowledge from the farm’s staff, offer a free course detailing the long history between the African diaspora and farming, and annually give up to four students the opportunity to participate in the certification course.
Howard’s garden, located behind HU Plaza Towers West, was founded 14 years ago. In 2024, the university demolished the green space in response to a rat infestation without notifying students beforehand.
Since then, the student group has been working toward reconstructing the safe and sacred space they cherish, with plans to finish building a gazebo, replant their orchard and install a glass greenhouse on the plot of land. These goals become even more attainable through Halo’s partnership with CGCF.
“I think it just signals continual improvement in our space [and the] commitment to rebuilding and revitalizing our space to the best that it can be,” Sulaiman Mathew-Wilson, Halo’s vice president, told The Informer. “We’re both green spaces just… working in collaboration and both growing and being as beneficial and as best as they can both be.”
Building Food Sovereignty in Urban Spaces
Before Joya Wade became executive director of Common Good City Farm, she was inspired by participating in nature-based youth programs throughout her childhood to follow a path committed to sustainable agriculture, locally grown produce, gardening education and continuing the ancestral practices of being caretakers of the land.
Wade grew up in Milwaukee, a city that has many similar issues to Washington regarding heavy urbanization and gentrification, leading to segregation. These issues have created food deserts, where Black communities’ access to quality and whole foods is limited. According to Feeding America, 23% of Black Americans faced food insecurity in 2023, which is more than double the rate of white people.
A food systems specialist, Wade believes CGCF and Halo’s shared goal of offering green spaces that allow people to know where and who grows their food is necessary and will provide communities with solace.
“I think now, more than ever, people are really wanting to invest more of their time and energy toward collective action and also just having control over their food system,” Wade told The Informer. “There are a lot of things in our food systems that we have no control over, and that are mysterious and behind the scenes that we’re not even too sure of.”
Having participated in environmental youth programs himself, especially through community garden work in his hometown of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, Mathew-Wilson also believes young people and their communities must have autonomy over their food with access to healthy options.
“It’s really important for us not to become reliant on other systems,” Mathew-Wilson, a junior environmental studies major, said. “They may not serve your best interests, so I think just even having the knowledge of how to garden, how to sustain yourself, [is] essential.”
Seeds of Knowledge, Roots of Liberation
Wade hopes the partnership inspires the new generation of Black farmers and gardeners to continue passing down the knowledge made accessible to them by mentors at the farm to future growers.
Briana McGowan, an advisor to the student garden, shares the same sentiment, especially since she comes from a long line of Texas farmers. She considers herself a grower, although she doesn’t necessarily own a farm, but maintains relationships with local farmers through her food lab co-op, ReDelicious, which repurposes and preserves food waste from local farmers’ markets and businesses.
Inspired by George Washington Carver, who coined the term regenerative agriculture and educated Black communities on how to take care of their soil and nourish their environment, McGowan is committed to mentoring Howard students and passing along the information and skill sets she’s acquired from her mentors and peers. She views this dedication as a precautionary method when food systems are unstable and unreliable.
“I think access to food, knowledge of growing food, access to land, knowledge of how to be a good steward to the land, let alone land ownership, is inherently political,” McGowan told The Informer. “It allows for people to return to that knowledge that’s in our blood of how to take care of ourselves, and the wisdom of the African tradition of communal food sharing.”
Following the notion of retaining soil health to ensure the mitigation of climate change’s impacts, Zukeri wants the partnership to focus on regenerative agriculture, as it works in harmony with nature and aligns with practices used by indigenous cultures in the Global South, the Americas and Africa.
“The modern industrial revolution and farming practices, as really pushed by European settlers here, is really what has disrupted farming as a whole into becoming something that’s very detrimental to the planet,” Zukeri said. “If we replace that with regenerative practices, we would reverse climate change very quickly.”
Regenerative agriculture prompts people to think about the interconnectedness of all aspects of agriculture, pushing practitioners to have a broader view of the practice and of the world, shaping their farming style to nourish both humanity and the environment.
He hopes that down the line, the partnership adequately equips students with the tools necessary to encounter any situations Mother Nature may throw their way, hoping that reconnecting with ancestral practices will build power and liberation for Black people.
CGCF staff and Halo board members are excited about the sense of community their collaboration will promote, as the connection allows them to build upon each other’s deep roots, making each other stronger through mutual support.
“When people gather, magical things happen,” McGowan told The Informer. “You never know what’s going to come out of it. Even if it’s just feeding each other, it’s paying it forward.”