The People’s Kitchen Community Gardens are under threat of closure due to greedy development, which seeks to displace Black families in Southwest Philly. We need your help in protecting our community's land from the threat of developers and ensuring that our community continues to have the fresh food and green space it deserves. Here’s the whats up: 

In spring of 2021, a year after the start of the pandemic, Community Members realized that the government wasn’t interested in protecting or caring for our communities and that we needed to take power into our own hands. We decided that the best way for us to do this was to start growing our own food. 

There are 18 tax delinquent lots that have been vacant for at least a decade that we have been able to transform. In the span of a few months, we cleared trash, debris and weeds. We’ve laid down garden beds, built a greenhouse, and hosted some really cool block parties, celebrating community with free food and educational workshops regarding food and land sovereignty. 

Our gardens have been able to provide produce for our community kitchen which has provided community members with over 200,000 free meals, prepared by chefs citywide. We’ve been able to grow a variety of different fruits and vegetables, including, okra, squash, melon, collard greens, sweet potato, basil, cilantro, mint, pig weed, callaloo, several varieties of corn, cabbage, garlic, sweet peppers, wild onion, strawberries, watermelon, and so much more.

Unfortunately, this July, the Sheriff's office put four of the lots we are gardening on up for sale. I want to reiterate that these lots have been vacant since long before we started gardening on them. Because our gardens are an active form of rebellion against gentrification and displacement, the Sheriff's office and other political players have been adamant on destroying our gardens. 

Our gardens are in the heart of a food swamp/apartheid, where residents lack access to healthy, fresh food. This leaves fast food restaurants, and stores that only sell processed foods, as the main sources of food for community members.  We need your help, our gardens have been able to do so much good and we have plans to improve them and increase food access and sovereignty. Sign our petition if you believe in freedom, if you dream of a world where no one goes hungry, if you believe like we believe the land belongs to the PEOPLE!