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OUR MISSION
Our mission and the critical work we are doing across the four Washington counties we serve is to honor the past, steward the present, and look to the future. As the founder of Seed2Fork Agroforestry Farm, I am committed to creating multi-generational agroforestry farms.
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OUR JOURNEY
Our journey focuses on confronting these historical disruptions, compounded by systemic issues such as institutional oppression and minority stress, which continue to contribute to significant mental and physical health crises today.
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To combat these challenges and ensure a reliable, abundant food supply, our approach focuses on ancestral agroforestry. By cultivating trees, shrubs, herbs, and vegetables in a system that mimics a natural forest, we create a balanced ecosystem where each species supports the others. These sustainable practices have been used globally for thousands of years and are vital to restoring the health and resilience of our local communities.
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OUR FOCUS
Our focus and commitment to our mission guides our work. We are dedicated to supporting Black, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous, Native American, immigrant, and low-income communities. The individuals we serve are often treated as having “silent voices” or living in the “wrong” zip codes—factors that frequently shape the conditions and challenges we face within Washington State policies.
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OUR LANGUAGE
Traditional terms like “vision,” “mission,” and “values” don’t always fully capture who we are. When addressing our community’s needs, we utilize Adaptive Leadership principles rooted in community collaboration. Our language reflects specific social structures and experiences, including food apartheid, extended family hospitality, community bartering, social justice, ancestral worship, and resilience in the face of adversity.
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We believe this framework better represents our commitment to the community and the principles that guide us.
OUR RESEARCH
Regarding the foundational principles of our research initiatives, our work is guided by the American Diabetes Association and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the lived experiences of the communities we serve.
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Our approach is heavily informed by the work of leading experts like Silva A. Arslanian, a pioneer in youth-onset type 2 diabetes research and new therapies. Additionally, we are inspired by the advocacy of Joel Bervell. His work in debunking racial bias in medicine and addressing health misinformation is central to our commitment to health equity.
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We believe that grounding our research in both clinical expertise and advocacy ensures we effectively serve our community.
We care for the Earth. We know it’s a journey and an emergent design in the communities we serve. It is a moving target shaped by the various unjust infrastructures in our neighborhoods.
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We know caring for the people, and sharing and growing seeds, are our ancestors’ traditional methods for us to implement and achieve.
We incorporate fair share for all using methods that have been a longstanding tradition in Black, Latino, and Indigenous societies for hundreds of years when growing food.
