Dear Planting Justice community,
In collaboration with the Good Table United Church of Christ, Planting Justice and our progressive church partners purchased the historic Adachi nursery site in El Sobrante, saving this historic site from being turned into a gas station, and beginning renovation of the gorgeous building and grounds for a highly innovative project unlike any that has been done before! With construction currently underway, The Good Table is set to open in mid-2023 as the nation's first combined "pay-what-you-can" cafe, retail nursery, community gathering place and arts venue, farm store, and incubator kitchen!
Developing The Good Table will enable PJ to:
1) Support the creation of the Bay Area's first 6-day a week "pay-what-you-can" nonprofit cafe, run by our UCC partners, that will serve all people who enter with healthy food, smoothies, and hot beverages regardless of their ability to pay
2) Build two commercial kitchens, one for the cafe, and one for farmers, including Planting Justice, to provide access to local growers and food business startups who need commercial kitchen space to start new businesses and develop value-added products
3) Serve as a retail outlet for PJ's production nursery in Sobrante Park, deep East Oakland, to provide access to PJ's collection of heirloom edible and medicinal plants in a community that has no plant nursery, while also supporting living-wage jobs at the nursery that keep formerly incarcerated Sobrante Park residents free and where they are needed most, at home with their families
4) Create a community gathering space that will provide pay-what-you-can yoga, meditation, and an open floor plan for community members to offer a wide variety of educational opportunities to local residents, including self-defense, permaculture, urban farming, herbal medicine and holistic wellness workshops, space for community organizing, and more!
5) Create a venue for local musicians and artists to share their gifts and art with a community that lacks currently lacks any venue, meeting, or community art spaces
6) Create an urban farm store that provides residents with access to everything they need to increase food production and sustainability at home