RECENT DONATIONS

A Thank You For...

alt Windy Flat RV, San Pablo, donates a trailer for the 2.2 acre farm.  (September, 2015).

treeDave Wilson Nursery donates 230 peach and nectarine trees for Richmond residents.  (February 2015). 

Bill Graham Supporting Foundation, awards Self-Sustaining Communities a supporting grant. (December, 2014)

         Robert J. and Lim Duca donate 2.2 acres in San Pablo (December, 2014)

cherryDuarte Trees and Vines donates 450 citrus and fruit trees (October, 2014) for residents in Richmond, CA.

altAnnie's Annuals for hundreds of vegetable starts for home, community gardens and urban farms in Richmond, CA.  2014

altNutiva partners with Self-Sustaining Communities to provide for organic gardens in the backyards of transitional homes of Bary Dugar for the formerly incarcerated and the homeless in Richmond, CA.  July, 2014.

cherryTom Burchell of Burchell Nursery personally delivers 850 cherry, apricot, nectarine and peach trees to Richmond residents in honor of Cesar Chavez.  Burchell Nursery (March, 2014)

awardThe Strong Foundation for Environmental Values, awards Self-Sustaining Communities a grant. (March, 2014)

altThe Lifchitz Family Foundation for their donation for social justice in Richmond, California.

altTerroir Seeds, Cornucopia Seeds, Redwood Seeds, Bountiful Gardens, and SmartSeedStore for the donation of surplus 2013 seeds (January and February 2014)

treeDave Wilson Nursery donates 500 plum, cherry, apricot, Asian pear and peach trees for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service in Richmond, CA.  (Jan. 2014)

awardBill Graham Supporting Foundation, awards Self-Sustaining Communities a supporting grant. (December, 2013)

cherryDuarte Trees and Vines donates 300 citrus and fruit trees (October, 2013) for residents in Richmond, CA.

cherryTom Burchell of Burchell Nursery does it again by making a donation of 320 pomegranate trees, olive trees and blueberry bushes specifically for the North Richmond Green Festival.  Burchell Nursery (October, 2013)

cherryTom Burchell of Burchell Nursery personally appears to make a donation of and distribute 800 peach, nectarine, cherry, apricot, apple, pear and plum trees to Richmond.  Burchell Nursery (March, 2013)

treeDave Wilson Nursery donates 210 fruit trees and the City of Richmond staff pick them up and distribute them.  (Feb. 2013)

awardPiton Engineering for their donation and support.  (January, 2013)

awardBill Graham Supporting Foundation, awards Self-Sustaining Communities a supporting grant. (December, 2012)

awardThe Rose Foundation, Environmental Grassroots Fund, awards Self-Sustaining Communities a Watershed protection grant and an Environmental Grassroots grants.  (November and December, 2012).

cherryDuarte Trees and Vines donates 250 bluberry bushes, raspberry canes and table grape vines (November, 2012) for residents in Richmond, CA.

tree McEvoy Ranch donates 1,000 Tuscan olive trees for Richmond residents. (September, 2012) and an additional 1,000 in October of 2012.

Thanks to the El Cerrito United Methodist Church for including in their ministry plan a partnership with Self-Sustaining Communities.

cherry Pro-Tree Nurseries donates 1,308 Apple and Cherry trees. (April, 2012)

Read more ...

Welcome

The Self directs the functioning of the whole psyche in an integrated way. According to Carl Jung, conscious and unconscious are not necessarily in opposition to one another, but complement one another to form a totality, which is the Self.
(Excerpt from Personality and Personal Growth 6th ed. Frager & Fadiman, 2005)

New Trees Grow in Richmond

Details
Category: News

By Chris Treadway - West County Times
View full article at InsideBayArea.com

A local group took another step in its effort to help needy communities provide for themselves.

The El Cerrito-based group Self-Sustaining Communities received a new donation of food-bearing trees Nov. 19 and delivered them to two impoverished West County neighborhoods.

More than 500 olive trees and 500 culinary bay trees (not the native California bays we're familiar with) from McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma, along with 75 geraniums, were the latest contribution negotiated by the group.

Self-Sustaining Communities is dedicated to bringing neighborhoods the means and knowledge to provide for themselves and has worked with Northern California growers to bring more than 4,500 fruit, nut and olive trees to West County in the past year.

The deliveries are increasingly being directed to neighborhoods most in need.

"These are going to the Iron Triangle and North Richmond neighborhoods," Self-Sustaining Communities founder Linda Schneider said of the new batch. "We're taking them to a centralized location so residents can plant them to create neighborhood food and neighborhood greening."

Accompanying the trees are $900 worth of garden tools, provided by a grant from the Berkeley-based Strong Foundation for Environmental Values (strongfoundationgrants.org) and donations from First Methodist Church in San Rafael.

Schneider noted that the growers understand the potential value of their contribution and are "enjoying their participation in this meaningful process."

Self-Sustaining Communities is also building an educational "city farm" demonstration project. That effort started in September at a Richmond property owned by local businessman and entrepreneur Kevin Hampton, and has engaged neighbors in installing raised planter beds, planting trees and installing bee hives and chickens coops that will all provide a source of fresh and healthy nutrition.

Hampton has become a backer of the self-sustaining concept and helps make deliveries each time a new shipment of trees arrives. "He understands this work and wants to help facilitate and see that it's done," Schneider said.

Learn more at www.self-sustainingcommunities.org.

Our Commitment

Our work/mission is to assist in creating a systemic change in the SF East Bay of Northern California which meets environmental, social, and sustainability needs by addressing those areas upon which survival is dependent, specifically food, energy, transportation, shelter and social inclusion.  We focus on low-income, high crime areas, but are not necessarily limited thereto.  We approach these areas as part of an integrated larger area where coming together to make a systemic change can effect greater well-being for all members of the community.

Given the collapse and dysfunction of the current economic situation, the unemployment, environmental issues and crime, creating a new model is an opportunity we have at hand, by utilizing grassroot efforts, community building and social technology, among others.