Farm LA was founded in 2014 by Jason Wood and Emily Gleicher,
a local couple with a passion for gardening, sustainable living and… Lima Beans.
They are certified (UC) Victory Gardeners who aim to make an impact on
the underutilized land in Los Angeles by converting them into
spaces that give back to those in need, while making the city greener,
building community and growing food for our future. At the end of 2023 Farm LA
is shifting focus to uniting Angelenos in their pursuit of victory gardening
and growing food for those in need via our LA Victory Garden bulletin board.
Farm LA operated as a non-profit organization for almost 10 years.
Due to the extra costs of maintaining non-profit status and physical relocation
out of state, we’ve made the decision to dissolve the npo and function as a
passion project remotely from Colorado. We thank you for your understanding.
CURRENT PROGRAMS
the L.A. Victory Garden Project
What is a victory garden? Historically, a Victory Garden was a wartime vegetable garden developed to increase food production—especially by home gardeners. Farm LA’s take is a space to supplement you and your neighbors’ groceries, boost morale and build community. We’ve been doing this since 2014, on sidewalks or a vacant piece of land. Now it’s time to rally the community we’ve so lovingly built to help activate Angelenos all over LA in growing food for themselves and their neighbors.
Please know that we take gardening and privacy very seriously. We won’t share anything here except your first name and ZIP code. After registering, fellow gardeners can contact you by clicking on the message icon, but they won’t see your email address unless you reply to their message. We’re encouraging you all to do your own vetting, share your social media profiles, pictures of the space you have in mind, discuss how you won’t be using pesticides, your individual skillsets and capabilities.
Help start a Victory Garden… do you need a hand or land?
We’re all here to grow and share food while making LA a greener place. Below is a bulletin board of LA gardening enthusiasts so far.
• Start by filling out the form above with the necessary information and then click to read the fine print.
• If you’d like to contact an interested participant you can click the message icons 
next to each name to start a conversation.
• If you need help getting started gardening, soil testing or looking into pieces of land? Check out our Resources page for a list of links we’ve bookmarked over the years.
Hand
- Steve 02122 (master)
- Eli 90068 (they/them, novice)
- Stephanie 90027 (she/her, versed)
- Randy 90029 (novice)
- Durre 91208 (versed)
- Belen 90012 (She/Her/Hers, novice)
- Ryan 91101 (He/him, novice)
- Cesar 90038 (he,she,they, novice)
- James 90039 (He/Him, novice)
- Jennifer 90293 (She, novice)
- Jenna 90048 (novice)
- Smadar 91343 (She/Her, versed)
- Taylor 91401 (He/Him, novice)
- Chantel 90277 (She/her, versed)
- Victoria 90041 (She/her, versed)
- Andi 90039 (they/them, novice)
- Victoria 90041 (She/her, versed)
- AJ 90401 (They-them, versed)
- Flora 90240 (She/Her, novice)
- Emily 90814 (She/her, versed)
- Dominique 90038 (She/her, novice)
- Jenna 91367 (novice)
- Bronwyn 37206 (novice)
- Elizabeth 90022 ()
- Siri 91402 (she/her, versed)
- C. 90026 (versed)
- Barbara 90027 (She/her, novice)
- Madeleine 90026 (She/her, novice)
- Simea 91001 (versed)
- Susan 90027 (She/her, versed)
- Leo 90025 (they/he, versed)
- Katie 90027 (She/Her, novice)
- Gur 90290 (novice)
- Nicole 90029 (She/they, novice)
Land
- Kat 90043 (She/her, backyard)
- Edward 91006 (backyard)
- Katya 900710 (backyard)
- Helga 90042 (She/Her, backyard)
- NICOLLE 91306 (HER/SHE, raised)
- Benny 90064 (he/him/his, raised)
PAST PROGRAMS
URBAN FARMING
After years of curbside mini-farms, we were asked if we wanted
to grow food on a vacant piece land in Elysian Valley,
Los Angeles owned by 75 year LA native Robert Berg and his
wife Janet Workman. Here with our volunteers we grew lima beans
that we package into donation kits. These included 1 cup of dried lima beans
(they triple in size to 3 cups once soaked overnight) with a cookbooklet in
English and Spanish on how to cook and grow them! We donated these
kits along with sweet potatoes and assorted squash to Angelenos in need
via these groups: our local Elysian Valley Senior Citizens Club,
Los Angeles Community Action Network, Seeds of Hope via
Food Forward, LARCEE.org, NELA Mercadito as well as our local
fruit shares! *We donated over 950 kits since being at Berg’s Farm!!!
SIDEWALK MINI-FARMING
We started Farm LA creating public mini-farms on sidewalks
around Los Angeles, particularly in neighborhoods that are considered
food deserts (meaning they don’t have a walkable affordable organic
market nearby). We have implemented over 10 mini-farms in LA city
and now focus on a digital connecting tool, if you have any questions about
starting your own sidewalk mini-farm please email us.
If you’re ready to dig in, register on our Victory Garden page!
Fruit shares
The Fruit Share evolved from a community dinner we co-hosted in Elysian
Valley with River Wild. We had a discussion about “What a healthy food
economy means to you, Elysian Valley” and the one theme that continued
throughout the dinner was all the excess fruit we have in Elysian Valley
because of the rich soil and wouldn’t it be cool if we found a way to share
said fruit.
So we started the Elysian Valley Fruit Share and ran it from
December 2015- February 2020. Neighbors brought their excess fruits, veggies,
flowers, herbs and swapped them with other neighbors’ harvests.
Farmers markets & health fairs
There is no better way to meet the community interested in their
health than at markets and health fairs. We’ve tabled numerous ones around
LA to share our lima bean growing tips & recipes, while promoting
healthy eating and drought-tolerant agriculture.
“KINDERGARDENING”
Pre-pandemic we worked with schools in NELA to help them
maintain their school gardens and hosted growing food 101 classes.
Learning these basics in food growing needs to be taught more
at an early age.
FOOD POLICY SUPPORT
We’ve collaborated with LA Food Policy Council and other urban farmers in an
Urban Agriculture Working Group. This group focuses on the policy of Urban
Ag in LA. We’ve helped to popularize a new Incentive Zone Act,
which encourages Angelenos to convert their parcels into urban gardens
& farms in exchange for reduced property taxes, which was intended to
create a domino effect for folks growing food on their vacant lots.
To see more about what we’re up to-
please visit our social media pages.
DONATE
(no longer accepting donations)
Your support has helped Farm LA sustain over the last 10 years
and helped maintain our digital connecting tool for Angelenos
wanting to start Victory gardens.
Our farm space in Elysian Valley is currently closed after almost 5 years and we are no
longer operating as a non profit organization. This is now a digital passion project.
OUR DONORS
Thank you for everything over the last 10 years!
You’ve helped provide
food access to low-income families
and VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES TO PROACTIVE ANGELENOS
DONORS
December 2014 – December 2023
We are no longer accepting donations, thank you again for everything!
The Madeksho Law Firm *Major Contributor*
Victoria Gleicher *Major Contributor*
Golden Road Brewing *Major Contributor*
Bob Berg & Janet Workman *Major Contributors* x 3
Reformation *Major Contributor*
LA2050 Listens/Riverwild *Major Contributor*
The Left Bank *Major Contributor*
Scholar *Major Contributor*
The Awesome Foundation *Major Contributor*
Whole Foods Market (Glendale, CA) *Major Contributor*
Rugged & Dapper *Major Contributor*
Sharre Jacoby *Major Contributor*
Tyler Hakes and Optimist *Major Contributor*
Bridgette Spalding *Major Contributor*
Weingarten Family Fund/Whittier Trust Co *Major Contributor*
Joe Agency *Major Contributor*
Olga & Fred Hauptmann *Major Contributor*
Whole Cities Foundation *Major Contributor*
The Bend: Community Benefits Fund *Major Contributor*
Splits 59 *Notable Contributor*
Christoph Bull *Notable Contributor*
Prateek Agarwal *Notable Contributor*
Camp Helping Hands *Notable Contributor*
Rancho Meladuco Date Farm *Notable Contributor*
Amy Jacovec
Eileen Unger
Alex Kamer
Damien Robledo
Julia Parnell
Jason Binns
Home Depot
Starbucks
Cameron Woodward
Steve Gruber
Janine & Ryan Labaqui
Whole Foods Fairfax
Adam Matthews
La Croix
Marvin & Reva Mallon
CVS
Ziva Manczyk
Christine, William & Moses Mills
Agnes Constante
Martina Kohl
Stephanie Gangi
Sprouts Farmers Market
Kaitlin Cassidy
Leslie Stokoe
Vivion Inc.
Aerialla Astrupgaard
Theresa Lee
Shenan Sarkovich
The Murphy Family
Waxpaper
Leslie Grow
Amanda Kretzmann
Laurie Bailey
Meg Cassidy
Caron Eule
Elizabeth Kroll
Kerry Lane
Ryan Lagasse
Jill Hoskins
William Kidd
Amy Chow
Michelle Wolfe
Latoya Hawthorne
Troy Barbu
Patricia Thomas
Austen Holman
Tara-Rose Lawrence
Daniel Lim
Danielle Evenson
Suzanne Gross
Parise Vautour
Jesse White
Elisa Whitehead
Jenna Aldridge
Nick Sasso
Martha & Wesley Scott
Irene E. Manning
Diandra Wood
Keely Luna
Ascending Lights
Bobbi Wood
Steve Tozzi
Jared Goldstein
Anna Castillo
Laura Estrada
Elizabeth Bowman
Ronna Ballister
Lara Willorna
Danielle Laubach
Lisa Hancock
Susan Masback
Lauren Skillen
The Lambo Family
Buffalo Exchange
Danielle Foss
Anne Deutsch
David & Veronica De La Torre
Amazon Smile
Paypal Giving Fund
Ben Lustgarten
Universal Studios via Susan Huckle
Jayna Steffens
Mike Baldi via Shirley Gonzales
Natalie Groce & Robert Jackman via Ghost & Stars
Zara Negron
Dyanne Stempel
Charlie Weinmann
Anne Edgar
Xeneb Shah
Marianna Babboni
David Ou
An Tran
Dilpreet Sidhu
The Lucky Pig Vintage Shop
The Cash Family
Natalie Groce & Robert Jackman
Julia DeSantis via the DeSantis Charitable Gift Fund
Lila Scott
Public Market Goods
Jaelynn Hinton
Tova Kaplan
Nicole Sciarrillo
Graze Los Angeles
Sarah Rothberg
Elaine Rene-Weissman with: LA River Public Art Project
Sarah Stoker
Melody Shih
Amazon Smile (RIP)
Lori Edwards
VOLUNTEERING
October 2023 update:
We’re currently focusing on our digital connection tool
since our lease at the farm is up.
If you or anyone you know is a developer who uses Story Maps please
email us at: help@esfahanbadr.com
Thank you for your interest!!
Any questions? help@esfahanbadr.com
CONTACT:
©FARMLA 2024
help@esfahanbadr.com