Black Lives Matter. Always.

We recently posted a photo on City Slicker Farms' Instagram featuring the Black Lives Matter sign a student in our community made for us that hangs at our greenhouse. That day we received an uncharacteristic number of unfollows.

Instagram is a visual medium, and we're honored that so many folks appreciate the images of nourishment, beauty and healing we post. Our work to achieve food justice is rooted in West Oakland, a community that experiences the daily violence of poverty, racism, police brutality, eviction and displacement. The nourishment, beauty and healing we share here are a reflection of and in the service to the communities we stand with -- communities that are rising up in power to demand liberation and social change. Black Lives Matter, whether we are confronting police brutality or an unjust food system.

Would you like to join a community garden?

In February 2016, City Slicker Farms will open the West Oakland Urban Farm and Park at 2847 Peralta Street in West Oakland. One of the features of the farm-park will be a 28-plot community garden, which will be a place for people to grow their own nutritious food, flowers, and herbs; get exercise; learn together; and find the peace and joy that come with connecting with nature and neighbors.

With sadness we say goodbye to Paul Hudson, a beloved West Oakland neighbor and City Slicker Farms community member. Paul helped establish the original Center Street Farm and has been involved in many ways over the years. Always a friendly and caring person, he is dearly missed.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, the Ralph Bunche School Nursery rang with the sound of drills as a new raised bed was being installed. This wasn't the typical garden build, though -- the construction of this bed was the culmination of a project that City Slicker Farms' Youth Crew had been working on for several weeks.

Over the last six months, low-income senior residences in Alameda and San Francisco Counties have become home to new community garden spaces. These community group gardens are places of activity and health for the senior residents and program participants.

In partnerships with the Area Agency on Aging, Alameda County Public Health Department, Satellite Affordable Housing Associates, and San Francisco Department of Public Health, City Slicker Farms has been able to build eight new community gardens across both counties.

The goal of these gardens is to increase senior citizens' access to healthy food, while providing gentle exercise and helping keep participants active and independent for as long as possible.