Every year, our Soil & Water Stewardship program brings together 40 community members for a comprehensive, nine-month training in sustainable food production and natural resource conservation. This year, we received an incredible number of applications, and the enthusiasm and support from this community means everything.

We began our first training with an inspiring talk from Deepa Iyer of Ayeko Farm. She invited us to explore food systems as a web of relationships — between land, water, food, labor, community, and biodiversity — and to reflect on how history, policy, and power have shaped these connections. Together, we considered how disconnection has led to challenges like soil degradation, water pollution, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and labor inequities — and how we can take both individual and collective action to reimagine our role in building more just, regenerative, and connected food systems. Returning to values of care, reciprocity, and ancestral knowledge can guide us toward a more equitable and sustainable future.

From reflection, we moved into action.

Stewards gathered at the beautiful Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands in Seattle on a perfect spring day — blue skies and warm sunshine. In partnership with Tilth Alliance’s Culturally Relevant Organic Plant Starts (CROPS) program, participants seeded bitter melon (both spiky and smooth varieties), winter melon, bottle gourd, and Thai pepper for community gardens. All these hot season crops will be tended in the greenhouse before being distributed to community gardeners who requested these specific crops in a couple of months.

We also built three in-ground propagation beds to expand our community nursery. Each bed uses a different soil mix to support a different kind of propagation — hardwood live stakes, softwood live stakes, and direct seeding. The nursery is a budding project that offers fruit trees, berries, and some native edible plants to community partners.

Stewards toured the farm to get a deeper understanding of the history of the ecosystems and peoples who have tended this place.

More than the work itself, it was the spirit of the day that stood out. Giving back to the community and caring for the environment felt deeply nourishing.

Forty strangers arrived that morning. By afternoon, they left with something more — a shared sense of purpose, connection, and belonging.