City Slicker Farms

When I started as Interim Executive Director of City Slicker Farms in July 2014, I made a promise to the Board of Directors: we would open the West Oakland Urban Farm and Park on my watch, so that the next permanent Executive Director of the organization could come into leadership without the pressure and distraction of a major construction project and capital campaign.

Well, my friends, we are almost there.

With programming at the Farm Park (that's me and Joseph this past weekend at a Farm Park volunteer day) on track to begin in January 2016, and the Grand Opening slated for February 2016, it is time for the organization to seek out a visionary who can step up to lead City Slicker Farms and contribute to the development of the food justice movement regionally and across the country.

We are beginning our executive search process now, which we expect will continue through the first quarter of next year. As we start this search for our next Executive Director, we must again ask you – our community – to help us: please share our Executive Director job announcement with your friends and colleagues.

The next Executive Director will step in at a tremendously exciting time. The Farm Park presents an opportunity for both deep community partnerships and innovative urban agriculture education, changing the entire conversation around food justice in Oakland. It will be a place where community members can take back a food system that has been completely corrupted and usurped by big ag, big food and big money.

The next leader of this organization will gain a staff of experienced food justice advocates who are delivering critical and change-making programs on the ground - literally, in the dirt - with community members throughout Oakland and Alameda County. This leader will steward the development of our community market farms, backyard garden, and urban farming education programs, as we grow into our new home, and make that space the flagship for all that we offer our community.

I won’t be going far after the Executive transition is complete – my hope is to return to the Board of Directors to help resource and guide the organization in its next phase of life, and to support the next Executive Director in their success as a leader of this organization.

And in the meantime, we have a Farm Park to open! Let’s get to it!

With gratitude,

Ariel Dekovic, Interim Executive Director at City Slicker Farms.