Raise funds to cover costs for students & teachers

Our Farmer Training Program is designed to confront three major crisis that we are facing in this time. We are facing a health crisis, crisis related to the degradation of the environments and climate and challenges in creating an economy where everybody is able to make ends meet.

The course is designed to train participants, not only as farmers who are capable of starting their own farming business or organization, but also to prepare them to play a part in being a solution to these social, environmental, and economic crisis. Our graduates not only will farm, but also grow healthy food that will nourish community wellbeing, steward the land in ways that promote environmental sustainability, and create more opportunity for economy and livelihoods that are based on caring for community and caring for the land.

It is also important that we can train the next generation of farmers now, especially in our region, because we have remaining historic farmland in Riverside, Chino, and Ontario. The average age of farmers today is 65 and if we don’t have the next generation of farmers to replace them, this remaining agricultural land will be vulnerable to other development projects like warehouses, which are very harmful to our communities and the health of our environment.

Our program is unique in many ways and offers students the ability to take this training regardless of economic status. We prioritize each individual’s passion and desire to take on the challenges facing our next generations. We don’t turn anyone away based on finances. Additionally we prioritize Black, Indigenous, and other people of color as students and as instructors of our program as we feel this is an important aspect of working towards food justice and making this field more equitable and just. 

This past year we were able to graduate 26 students from our program, and gave them experience in various and many aspects of agriculture. We taught a hybrid program, both online and in person, and had different styles of teaching methods including: lectures, field trips, documentary film nights, and hands on workshops. We also worked with an amazing interpretation group called Cooperativas Brujulas who prioritize and advocate for language justice, having two interpreters for our online classes that provided both simultaneous English and Spanish interpretation to ensure equitable language access to all participants.

We are needing help with supporting the remaining costs of the program, as many students were needing financial assistance to participate in the program. Your donation will support us to cover the scholarships that we offered as well as remaining costs that will cover interpretation and coordination of this program. Receiving these funds will support us to continue to offer this program to our community. 

Please help us to continue to train the next generation of farmers, by making a donation today and/or by sharing this amongst your network. Thank you so much for your support! 

Feedback from students directly from surveys (these were anonymous): 

“I found this program to be such a valuable part of my growth as an aspiring farmer! I loved being able to integrate cultural practice, traditional medicine, and to express myself in the 'language of my heart'. In the time of COVID and various global stressors it was not only a useful program to learn the practical parts of farming but also such a beautiful space to be a part of for me mentally and spiritually. I will be missing our weekly meetings in the coming months but I am excited about what comes next for everyone that I was lucky enough to share space with! Sending much love to all of you who coordinated/mentored/taught/ and nurtured this space for us.”

“Thank you all so much for the opportunity and support along the way. It's been the greatest part of my year!”

“Estoy agradecido por darme la oportunidad de aprender agricultura con HDV  y en especial con Tracey por ser una gran lider que nos guio.”

“This coop stuff is really planting seeds in my head about materializing my vision. I am grateful for this content!”

“The film was amazing. The most impactful parts for me was learning how water has turned into a commodity by capitalism to be used for many industrial purposes like fracking. I also learned that if we work together conserve water and change our ways of consumerism we can bring back Earth’s  beautiful ecosystems and heal the land.”

Beginning Farmer students plant onion after learning how to install water-conserving drip-irrigation.