Harvesting Hope: Unveiling a Black Community Center and Agricultural Hub

Feed’em Freedom Foundation is building a new Black Community Center and Agricultural Hub that will provide vital resources and help grow BIPOC-led farms and businesses. By understanding the needs of our community, identifying gaps in the food system, and finding ways to close the gaps, we can build the prosperity and health of our historically underserved communities.

Feed’em Freedom Foundation ignites and centers Black agriculturists as the owners and movement leaders of land stewardship, regional food security and economic prosperity systems. Feed’em Freedom Foundation grew out of the work of Mudbone Grown, a Black-owned small farm enterprise that grows and celebrates Black food sovereignty.

Oregon Food Bank is proud to build on this long-time partnership through Rooted + Rising to help establish Feed’em Freedom Foundation’s Black Community Food Center & Agricultural Hub, contributing more than $2 million to this project through 2022-2023.

“Creating prosperity and bridging the wealth gap can’t happen without land access. If you can get on that land and work the soil, grow food and create jobs, you can create a path toward community sovereignty.” — Shantae Johnson, Feed’em Freedom Foundation Executive Director, Co-Founder of Mudbone Grown and member of Oregon Food Bank’s Board of Directors

Watch Shantae Johnson and former Oregon State Senator Akasha Lawrence Spence discuss the importance of land access for Black farmers and the future of Feed'em Freedom Foundation.

As food security and food sovereignty are at the foundation of their work, Feed’em Freedom Foundation’s Black Community Food Center will be critical infrastructure in the BIPOC food economy, activating solutions and connections that help grow BIPOC-led farms and businesses. The Center will provide community access to a food pantry, commercial kitchen space and greenhouse. It will be a place where community-based organizations can host breastfeeding groups, garden education classes and cooking classes. The campus will also include a central gathering hub, cold and dry food storage, a hydroponic freight farm and an anaerobic digester.

The Center will be a place of innovation, to cultivate community wealth, connect small producers to institutional markets, build cooperative growing efforts, and create educational pipelines for youth to grow greater food sovereignty in our communities. It will be a full loop system driver for agriculture, incubating the next generation of food system leaders.

Download our Rooted + Rising booklet to learn more about the Feed’em Freedom Foundation’s Black Community Food Center and how you can support this essential resource in our community.

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