Sobrante Park Nursery

From Barbed Wire to Beloved Community Space

We transformed an empty lot barricaded with barbed wire into a beautiful, healing space loved in the community. The nursery provides economic opportunities for a predominantly Black and Spanish-speaking community impacted by systemic oppression and violence and is run by people directly from Sobrante Park, including 12 family members who work alongside their parents and siblings. It serves as a safe, peaceful place for community members, an organizing space for the Black Sobrante Park Healing Council, and a place of prayer and land rematriation for local Native people through the Sogorea Te Land Trust.

Developing a Nature-Based Economy

Plants grown here produce thousands of pounds of food as well as seeds and propagation materials for tens of thousands of new trees each year. Through this production, the nursery has created jobs for 15 formerly incarcerated staff who came through our holistic re-entry program and created paid opportunities for over 100 youth interns. Through our education program, we host 2,500 youth each year where they get to see  a community-led, land-based social enterprise that creates excellent living wage jobs and learn how to propagate fruit trees and grow their own food.

People come here and treat this space like a park. A place to get off the concrete, walk through some mulch paths, eat some fruit, learn about plants, be in a supportive environment. It creates a job for many folks from here. It’s the only place like this I’ve ever been to.

- Joe Urias, Educator in Propagation, Planting Justice since 2015