Acta Non Verba

 

ACTA NON VERBA: Where city kids discover how food grows in nature

By Rachel Trachten | Photos by Zach Pine

 

 

United States Navy veteran Kelly Carlisle often recalls the hot day out with her 4-year-old daughter in 2009 when she ducked into a plant nursery to cool off and saw something that changed her world. Spying a huge lemon hanging on a tiny tree, she wondered, ‘Is that how food is grown? And could I grow it myself?’ Thus began Carlisle’s self-education as a gardener, and 15 years later, thousands of East Bay kids have reaped the benefits.

One of those young people is Jada Bland, who as an 11-year-old joined her friends at the 2017 summer camp run by Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV). At first, she saw it as just a fun way to spend a summer, but Bland was so happy there that she kept coming back, progressing from camper to junior counselor and now, at age 18, to counselor. She’s quick to smile as she recalls cooking, swimming, growing strawberries, dancing, and taking field trips. Perhaps the most striking part of her story is that it’s not unusual—she’s among a substantial group of young people whose lives have been powerfully enriched by the East Oakland urban farm that Kelly Carlisle created in 2010.

Acta Non Verba means deeds not words, and Carlisle’s first ANV deed was to establish a farm for youth engagement on a quarter acre of land in East Oakland’s Tassafaronga Park. The organization has grown steadily and now boasts four farm sites spread across East and West Oakland with a weekly CSA serving 150 households, an after-school program, family outings in nature, volunteer opportunities for kids and adults, and Camp ANV, which Carlisle calls “the crown jewel of our program.”

 

 

A PLACE TO TRY NEW FOODS

“Combining the arts with food and agriculture is fun for the kids,” says Carlisle, who has developed a camp curriculum featuring dance, visual arts, archery, podcasting, and swimming. ANV’s six-week summer camp serves 200 kids, with an additional two weeks of sleepaway camp and shorter sessions during school breaks. For many of the youth, primarily children from under-resourced Oakland communities, camp offers their first exposure to growing food, eating fresh vegetables, and sleeping outdoors in a tent. The East Oakland neighborhood where ANV’s original farm is located fits the USDA definition of a food desert, with only two grocery stores within three miles providing limited fresh produce. The ANV website states: “Imagine a child who has never seen carrots in the ground or screams in fright at a worm. This is the reality of many children we work with.”

ANV board member Diamond Allen has a deep understanding of the challenges. He started as a 12-year-old camper and worked his way steadily up the ladder, becoming a junior counselor, counselor, and then one of two lead counselors. Just three years after Allen graduated from college, Carlisle asked him to join her board of directors.

“In Oakland, you see a lot more liquor stores and fast-food restaurants than you do farm stands or fruit stands, and kids just naturally like sugary snacks, chips, and soda,” says Allen. At camp, kids must follow a no-sugar policy, and Allen believes that cooking with the kids helps them adapt to eating vegetables. From his own camp days, he recalls bringing just-picked foods into the kitchen: “We got to cut the kale, cut the cilantro, cut the little tomato, and I think that made me appreciate the food a lot more. There’s value in just giving kids that opportunity to interact, to engage with these vegetables that they’ve never heard of and now they can say, ‘Hey, I tried this one chicken dish that had vegetables on it at camp.’” Allen adds that most of the kids are open-minded, and by the end of summer, they’ve tried at least five new foods. Campers also make recipe books to share with their families.

Like Allen, Jada Bland loved being a camper and also welcomed the responsibility that came with joining the staff: “This camp has taught me that I really like being with people,” she says. “Right now, I’m in school for nursing, and camp has prepared me to work with all different kinds of people, especially kids.”

Allen also credits his camp experience with teaching him a multitude of skills, from leadership and communication to organization and time management. Today Allen serves on ANV’s Board Finance Committee and works for Docusign, where he’s recruited colleagues to volunteer for ANV, leading to a donation from the company. It’s these kinds of gifts that help ensure that no child is turned away from Camp ANV due to a lack of funds.

Another former counselor, Breanna Madison, recently graduated from the Howard University School of Law and will soon be a law clerk working on child custody and other family law cases. “Not only did my work at ANV grow my leadership skills and my ability to speak up,” she says, “but it also just taught me the value of understanding children and recognizing their agency.”

 

 

A FARM ON URBAN LAND THEY OWN

On my visit in late May, ANV’s West Oakland Farm Park is bustling with activity. Camp is set to start in less than a week, and the counselors are finishing up their training. A group of teens weighs and packs stone fruit and walnuts for the CSA as two staff members harvest lettuce and a longtime volunteer tends to the compost pile. The Farm Park is the newest of ANV’s four sites and the only one that they own. The arrangement came about when former owner City Slicker Farms decided in 2020 that its best path out of growing financial struggles was to be absorbed by a like-minded organization. ANV applied and was selected.

The other three sites are also active: The original ANV farm and after-school program are going strong in East Oakland, where ANV was established alongside the seven-acre affordable housing community Tassafaronga Village. At the Oakland Coliseum, ANV partners with the Oakland A’s on a demonstration garden that includes fruit trees, perennials, and pollinator plants. And salad greens grown at the Woods of West Oakland (WOW) Farm are currently sold to Oakland restaurant The Cook and Her Farmer.

Produce from ANV also supports its year-round BeetBox CSA program. The young people plan, plant, harvest, and sell the produce, which is supplemented by fruit, nuts, eggs, and honey from local BIPOC-owned farms. Profits from the CSA go into savings accounts for the kids who run it, with the requirement that those funds are used for educational purposes like school tuition or vocational training.

Carlisle is happy to have a presence in both East and West Oakland. “For generations, folks have felt like, if I’m in the east, I don’t go to the west and vice versa,” she says. “We are bridging that gap. We’re making sure that youth understand that this is their city. There’s nowhere in the city that they don’t belong.”

Carlisle’s dream is for ANV to own a building with outdoor space that’s equidistant from their West and East Oakland farms. In the meantime, she’ll continue to use the land and resources in place to nurture youth through farming, fun, and learning.

“So many of our kids are required to be adults at such a young age and to be in adult situations,” she says. “It’s been our line since 2010 that every child deserves a childhood.” ♦

anvfarm.org

 

 

Visiting Acta Non Verba left writer Rachel Trachten and photographer Zach Pine longing to go back to camp—preferably one with a farm. View Rachel’s stories about food, farms, and gardens at clippings.me/users/rachel_trachten and learn about Zach’s environmental art projects at naturesculpture.com and sandglobes.org.