Urban farms across LA employ formerly incarcerated farmers

“We grow food for the sake of satisfying the deeper yearning for community and kinship.”

By Ryann Blackshere Vargas
Spectrum News
Compton
Jun. 03, 2021

Excerpt:

Journey Presely has worked on the Compton farm for four years. It’s located just blocks from where she grew up.

“This is where it all started. I used to gang bang over here. I used to just be bad,” Presely said.

She was in and out of jail a few times until she realized she needed a fresh start. She needed to serve her community.

“I said I planted so many bad seeds that it’s time to come here and plant some good seeds and watch the harvest flourish,” Presely said.

She now works at Alma Backyard Farms, where she grows food and flowers. She also works at the weekly farmers market that’s open to the neighborhood.

Farm Co-Founder and Watts native Erika Cuellar said the farm addresses two urgent needs of the community.

“We have high rates of parolees coming out in this area, and we have high rates of food insecurity, and so through urban agriculture, we provide opportunities to provide both,” Cuellar said.

She started the farm in 2013 with Richard Garcia. Both worked at Homeboy Industries in LA with people who had been in prison. Then, they decided to grow food and opportunities.

“Alma in Spanish means soul and so what we hope to achieve is to help nourish the soul,” Garcia said. “We don’t grow food just for the sake of nourishing the palate. We grow food for the sake of satisfying the deeper yearning for community and kinship.”

Kinship and roots are why Presely believes the farm is able to flourish in Compton.

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