Beacon Hill Community Rallies to Support Nurturing Roots Urban Farm

Reporting by Cesar Canizales

Neighbors and community members rallied on Sunday to support Nurturing Roots, an urban farm in Beacon Hill that is being forced off the property at the end of the month.

The farm gives free, fresh produce and eggs to more than 500 people annually, and it also provides agricultural education, pots and seeds to many more. Some of the produce also goes to food banks.

“People can come and just take produce. So we don't ever way out. We don't ever ask, who are you feeding? Because a lot of times we really think those are the barriers, people coming with money,” said Nyema Clark, Nurturing Roots founder. “Instead, hey, if you find some eggs, you can take them home today and the chickens put them all over. So I think the joy really is being able to see folks grabbing things out of the ground. Like I said, free harvesting, free foraging.”

Clark founded Nurturing Roots eight years ago and leases the land from Bethany United Church of Christ, right next door to the farm. 

Clark says before Nurturing Roots leased the plot, it was full of fennel and blackberry bushes that one couldn’t even walk through, but she cleared it up and set up the farm. She says the church now wants to take it. 

“I think a lot of what their ambitions are, which they haven't been very clear about, is that they can use this space as their own and push out the community that actually built it. How do you try to elevate the voice of community to try to analyze how is this church even reaching this conclusion that we are, you know, in an organization that is expendable, we can just be thrown off in this place. I think this community, South Seattle, has been displaced far too often,” said Clark.

Clark says last year she offered to buy the land and later talked with the pastor and church leaders about renewing the lease, so the church knew her intentions to continue working the land. But because it was never put on paper, Clark says the church saw the opportunity to retake the land. 

The board members of the church refuse to meet with her, Clark says, and the church even cancelled Sunday service.

“When we were thinking about even the ideas of the church, this is what you're supposed to be about. You know, this is the work that you say is important. This is the faith that a lot of us believe in,” said Clark.

In an email, the Bethany Board of Directors and Reverend Angela Ying say that, “Nurturing Roots is not being evicted,” and that, “Nurturing Roots did not inform Bethany United Church of Christ of its interest to renew 90 days before the expiration of its lease.”

They also say that Bethany “has been subsidizing Nurturing Roots a calculated $303,000 over the five years period by offering a greatly reduced rental rate…and has moved forward in building community with other justice organizations that better match our social justice vision for the greater good.”

David Reyes has partnered with Clark since she founded Nurturing Roots. 

“What Nyema of Nurturing Roots is doing is just part of a broader network around how we're creating a space for people of color and to really show what resiliency and equity is about in terms of getting fresh foods,” said Reyes.

People who went to the farm to show their support are saddened by what is happening.

“It's really disappointing that she may lose the space and that, you know, we all came out just to show her that we're supporting her, that whatever she needs to do to be able to save her business and the farm, we're here to help,” said Omi King, a supporter who attended the rally.

“We need farms here in the city. But if we can whatever we can offer her as far as continuing to grow,” said Lexie King, who is also a farmer and who went to the rally.

There is genuine worry about what will happen if the farm is shut down because so many people depend on it.  

“We no longer serve families. We no longer serve homes. We no longer serve the people that can't afford to buy kale. We can no longer serve the people that deserve to have access, which is everyone to local food, to healthy foods,” said Nakema Jones, a volunteer at Nurturing Roots.

“This is our closest farm. This is our neighbor where like there's this green space of growing food, growing community and amplifying culture. So we are all connected where we're doing trying to do this together. So to lose them, we're not only losing this space, we're losing our neighbor,” said Daniella Nicholas of the Tilth Alliance, an organization that promotes organic and sustainable farming practices.

Nakema Jones said the church is part of the community, and she made a call to reconsider the action.

“What community needs to do, and I'm specifically speaking to the church, is be humane and understand that we are all here together, we are all doing the work together, and they can mutually benefit from this land remaining as a farm,” said Jones.

Clark is puzzled by the church’s actions, and she would like to ask pastor Angela Ying a question.

“I want to ask her—what would Jesus do?”