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About Us

Our mission is to conduct collaborative community-driven research, education, and extension focused on ecological farming and food justice, and to foster equitable economies, a healthy environment, and increased resilience in vulnerable communities, both urban and rural.

 

The UC Gill Tract Community Farm is a collaborative community project between the University of California Berkeley and the local community, focused on issues of food justice and urban farming.  It is located in Albany, CA, at the corner of San Pablo Ave and Marin Ave. It is an urban farm where you can come and harvest food for yourself and your family in exchange for help with weeding, planting, and watering.  It also hosts a sliding-scale farmstand and partners with several East Bay community organizations and food pantries to distribute fresh organic produce to those who lack access to it. 

 

In recent years, Gill Tract farmers have been honored to deepen in reciprocity and relationship with the land and the life it supports.   In 2018, farmers began collaborations with Sogorea Te' Land Trust, in support of processes of rematriation.  In the winter of 2020, the Xerces Society identified the Gill Tract as the East Bay's largest overwintering site for the Western Monarch Butterfly, inspiring farmers to begin learning how to steward the site as endangered species' habitat.

 

The UC Gill Tract Community Farm is one of the increasing number of urban agriculture and alternative sustainable food systems worldwide that exist to develop innovative local solutions to social, environmental and economic injustices. Community members work with representatives of UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources on a Stewardship Council to jointly govern the land as we learn about, research, and address food and equity needs in the East Bay region and beyond (See “Working Groups” tab for more information).

 

You are welcome to get involved at any level, whether that is joining a working group or simply coming to join us during our open hours.

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