FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Germaine Jenkins Chief Farm Officer Fresh Future Farm Inc 843-804-9091 info@freshfuturefarm.org

FRESH FUTURE FARM SELECTED BY NEW COMMUNITIES, JUBILEE JUSTICE, AND DECOLONIZING WEALTH PROJECT AS PART OF $1M EFFORT TO SUPPORT BIPOC-LED FOOD AND LAND JUSTICE AND SOVEREIGNTY EFFORTS

USDA Equity Commission member Shirley Sherrod and Jubilee Justice Founder and President Konda Mason steered the Advisory Committee for the new partnership, The Food and Land Justice Fund

[NORTH CHARLESTON] - April 14, 2022 - New Communities, Jubilee Justice, and Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) today announced Fresh Future Farm as one of 32 grantees to receive funding through the Food & Land Justice Fund, a new $1 million partnership and funding initiative to support Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)-led organizations leading food and land justice and sovereignty efforts across the country.

The Food & Land Justice Fund comes as Black farmers fight to reclaim land ownerships that have declined by over 16 million acres in the last century and as Native farmers fight to reclaim their ancestral foodways. Fresh Future Farm is building on these efforts by incorporating renewable energy infrastructure into their farming and sliding scale grocery store. Additional grantee partners are working to build local power through community organizing to protect the loss of additional land, fight back against pipelines being built through farmlands, and protect and steward seeds in order to reclaim the pre-colonial diet that is rooted in traditional hunting, fishing, and foraging practices.

Final grant award decisions were made by the Fund’s Advisory Committee, which includes Shirley Sherrod, Executive Director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc, and Co-Founder of New Communities, Inc., and member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Equity Commission; and Konda Mason, Founder and President of Jubilee Justice, based in Louisiana. The donation was seeded by Bia-Echo Foundation in the name of Jubilee Justice and New Communities, with the intention of expanding funding for BIPOC farmers.

“In order to accurately address the racial wealth gap in the United States, we must first acknowledge the injustices of our food and agriculture industry,” said Edgar Villanueva, Founder and Principal of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital. “We’re thrilled to join our two partner organizations and grantees in growing the movement to reclaim land and food systems in an effort to create a more equitable and sustainable future for all.”

“It is an honor to work alongside leaders like Konda Mason and Edgar Villanueva to spearhead such a meaningful and impactful partnership,” said Sherrod. “This fund will become an invaluable tool and a template for funders, supporters and advocates as we build a nationwide network of sustainable land-based communities and address the injustices in this country's food and agriculture system.

“Joining forces with Shirley Sherrod, Decolonizing Wealth and Bia-Echo Foundation to fund BIPOC food and agriculture organizations who have historically had little-to-no access to funding has been an incredible honor,” said Mason.

“Disinvested communities need renewable energy support and the Food and Land Justice grant means that we won’t lose precious value-added inventory to power outages,” said Germaine Jenkins.

The first round of Food and Land Justice Fund grantee partners were announced in December 2021. The second round was announced Tuesday, April 12.

ROUND ONE (December 2021):