Local Food Initiative Intern Yveline Saint Louis sat down with Nurturing Roots founder Nyema Clark to talk about what it means to be a Black urban farmer in uncertain times and where the organization is headed with this new support from the Conservation Futures Program.
The project, Nurturing Roots’ Empowering Southend Communities through Sustainable Conservation, will establish an urban farm near Sound Transit’s Rainier Beach Station to anchor their environmental justice work and build food sovereignty in South Seattle.
YSL: Would you mind sharing your journey to founding Nurturing Roots? What was it that you were seeing in your community that pushed you to this calling specifically?
NC: Nurturing Roots started – whew – almost 10 years ago now. There are massive food injustices going on in urban environments, but really our country at large. For me, it was so important to be able to inspire our community, Black folks, to be able to think differently about healthcare, self-care, and educating ourselves about self-sustainability, which is a big one for me. How would I be able to survive if I were to be dropped in the middle of nowhere? Or if there was a catastrophe, a natural disaster that we just are left on our own?
So, how do we survive after that? I think it was just that theory of “we need to be able to do it ourselves.” A “we are what we got” type of thing.
Also, the lack of that oversight in communities, especially in urban environments. We are unable to access huge acreage or a farm to be able to see anything like that.
There’s also this aspect that speaks to the complicated history of agriculture for the Black community. We think about the transatlantic slave trade…when I learned about farming, when I learned about people being outside and growing things, it was because we watched “Roots” at school.
And to me, combating that perspective, or that analysis, not only for myself inside, but other folks that were participating is crucial. I asked myself, “how do I engage these young people when they want to be the furthest away from jobs that resemble enslavement or servitude?” That’s not something we celebrate and so being able to transition away from that mode of thought and inspire young people to see agricultural practice as valuable is important.
It’s tough, you don’t feel like you have ground to stand on, but it’s necessary. You got to do this thing. I think that has been the most difficult finding myself as a Black woman in this work, being able to engage a community who’s been psychologically turned off from caring for themselves in this way.
And then I think aside from that, it’s the idea that agriculture is just as valuable as our water, it’s our air, it’s our food. Our food is so important. Folks didn’t really start seeing funding shifts until COVID and it was like, “oh, now we need emergency food,” but folks have been hungry.
For sure, that’s deep! Where do you see yourself and the organization fitting in this broader network of food justice organizing?
I would love for Nurturing Roots to be that farm site that everybody has to visit before you graduate from Seattle Public Schools, or, that farm site that folks go to when they ask, “I can’t find this particular mushroom, who has lion’s mane?” And we know it’s at the farm.
So being able to be a resource hub, being able to be an education space, an innovation center for young people to be able to explore what technologies we’re going to need to sustain ourselves in this new world that we’re creating. We may not have access to the healthiest air, how are we going to solve that problem? Or are we going to learn to grow in bunkers? Are we going to have limited sunlight? What different environmental factors are going to need a solution?
So being able to look to young people and having that hub so that they could try out these theories or support that type of engagement. It could be a place for exploration, a place for growth, remembrance. I’m all about Sankofa – looking back to get to where we’re going – and not forgetting our past.
Thinking about the legacy of farmers, what did it look like? What is our history? This could be a museum, educational event space – it’s so many things, it’s multi-faceted. But yeah, I would love to be able to show folks different methods of farming, being able to learn how to do it themselves. It’s a big thing. So, no matter your age, this would be a place where you can go for resources, but also where you can learn how to move forward and be more successful.
That’s so powerful. I’m curious as to how you came up with the name Nurturing Roots?
Naming it Nurturing Roots was kind of a play on words, it rolled off my tongue.
Similar to what I mentioned earlier about Sankofa, all of us have a history and what has inspired me about Nurturing Roots has been developing programming that inspires us to think about the past, or to connect to the why or to inspire more than just this surface level thing.
I feel like nurturing your roots looks like you’re going beneath the surface somewhere. I tell a lot of folks, we’re growing food, but we’re actually growing humanity and restoring that connection to land. But you can’t really see that, so you’re able to feel that. Nurturing roots is, in physical form, I think what we are doing. We’re restoring that connection, we’re restoring that engagement in our minds, we’re pausing. All those different things that provide nourishment for our minds and bodies. Nurturing your roots is taking care of yourself in the deepest way possible.
It’s such a fitting name and I think turning to the past and to the land is just one of many things that can help manage the precariousness of our current moment.
Exactly. And then you have institutions that don’t even have a place for that. Outdoor education is something that’s not required anymore but we have to be outside. We have to live in the earth. How can we not have an education space that tells us how to do that? I think earth sciences is something, but I think it just needs to go deeper. We need to be able to have our cooking classes, even sewing. All the different trades, we got to learn that stuff and it’s just fading away.
Shifting gears a bit, I’m wondering how the grant from King County Conservation Futures Program will allow you to achieve your mission and better serve your community?
I have to mention Conservation Futures Program was the first grant meeting I ever attended when I created Nurturing Roots. And so, years ago, I think it was maybe seven years ago, I was introduced to Conservation Futures, and I realized, oh, this has the potential of supporting us purchasing a farm. There’s not a lot of funding sources that can help you afford to purchase land in the city.
But Conservation Futures you could use countywide. And so, applying for that, it was a resource that we could stack onto the other funding we had. In 2023, we were vacated from our last space. Our landlord no longer wanted to lease to us, so we lost the space then had to apply for the Conservation Futures grant, but it was due right around the time my daughter was due. The team, I’ll just say Ingrid (Lundin), she was really supportive from the beginning. She remembered me coming to that first meeting and remembered every year to say, “Hey, we’re asking for applications. You should come in, make your case. You never know, you should try it.” And yeah, eventually it was our time. We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to get funding that will live beyond me. My daughter, her daughter, won’t ever have to worry about whether or not that place will still be there.
Anyway, by the end of the year we’re hoping to have a new farm!
Now that you have this support, what are your dreams now? Where and how are you hoping to expand?
Into the stratosphere! I think for sure this will draw more awareness to, not only where agriculture and resources in our city need to go, but also fostering more conversation about resilience, community working together, and stressing the necessities of why. I mean why do we need these spaces? For us, it’ll restore a lot of our engagement as far as community. When we lost the site, we lost people too; interns, contractors… we had to shut off that engagement. Now we’ll have the capability to connect again. This program has definitely restored our ability to operate.
Now I can look back to losing our previous space and I’m like, “wow it had to happen.”
To learn more about Nurturing Roots, check out their website and stay up to date with their social media @nurturingrootsfarm on Instagram and @Nurturing Roots on Facebook.
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