Community Market Farms

The Community Market Farms program is an initiative of City Slickers Farms, an organization that supports access to fresh, healthy, organic food for low-income residents of West Oakland, CA. This program sponsors seven public food-production gardens on sites owned by individuals, the City of Oakland, and the Oakland Unified School District, and distributes the produce to residents at its weekly Center Street Farm Stand on a donation basis. In addition, the program supports a greenhouse and offers a vegetable scrap pick-up service that generates compost for its gardens. Approximately 64% of customers served are low-income, and 32% are living in poverty.

City Slickers Farms' initiatives are funded mostly through support from foundations and government agencies, but the organization also receives monetary and in-kind donations from individuals and local businesses. All services are free. In addition to the Community Market Farms program, City Slickers Farms also hosts the Backyard Garden Program, the Urban Farming Education Program, and the Policy Advocacy Initiative.

The Community Market Farms program transforms vacant land into market farms and public spaces in order to grow and distribute organic affordable food with and for the community.

City Slickers Farms estimates that in 2010 alone, the seven Community Market Farms program yielded over 9,600 pounds of produce; distributed produce to 725 community members through its weekly, donation-only farm stand; generated 11 tons of compost; and tended to 26,000 plants in its greenhouse.