The farm is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Oakland & the World Enterprises leases the three-quarter acre plot from the city in a section of Oakland that has been slower to bounce back than other areas. The land is located directly across from the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) line, which connects Oakland to San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. As with much of the rest of this city, West Oakland is a neighborhood that many believe is rapidly gentrifying: Community farms, cafés, and restaurants are popping up, but the area still lacks a supermarket.

Brown thinks big. She’s also realistic about what one program can do. “This is not a panacea, it’s a model,” she says. “People come out of the joint with nothing to do and $200 in their pocket. Once that money runs out … they’ll do anything to survive, including hitting somebody in the head for $20.” We have to create positive opportunities for these people to return to the community.”

A Second Chance for People and a Place

Despite its recent bleak history, this neighborhood was once a vibrant African-American cultural center, where jazz and blues were a draw. But a series of freeways, a postal distribution center, and the train line cut through the neighborhood, sucking the soul out of it in the process. As with the ex-prisoners, Brown wants to help give West Oakland a second chance, too.

But she knows she has a long way to go. While Brown has the vision, she still has to raise significant funding to make it a reality. She’s looking to nonprofit groups and private donors to invest in her idea. She estimates the entire project, including housing, will cost in the $30 to $40 million range. To date, she’s received only around $300,000 in grants and county funding.

For now, the farm employs 10 former inmates on a part-time, rotating basis and pays them $20 an hour. It has also landed its first culinary client contract: Picán Restaurant, an upscale Southern-influenced restaurant in the city’s lively Uptown district, and one of the few Black-owned restaurants in the area.

It was a privilege to come on board as a restaurant partner, says Picán owner Michael LeBlanc. In addition to buying from the farm, the restaurant is hosting fundraising and goodwill-building dinners for West Oakland Farms once a month through the end of the year.

Brown, who concedes to knowing little about growing or cooking food, has enlisted Master Gardener Kelly Carlisle to oversee the effort. An ex-Navy officer and longtime East Oakland resident, Carlisle also runs the nonprofit Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project.

“Working with kids is one thing, working with adults who have been in prison is something else,” says Carlisle. “Some of my crew asks if they can go to the bathroom, that’s how engrained prison culture is for them.”

Chard in the West Oakland sun. (Twilight Greenaway)

After Time Behind Bars, a Chance to Grow

In a matter of months, the team has built an obvious rapport. GaQuayla LaGrone, 32, began working at the farm in April. She had never farmed before and it took her a few weeks to get over her squeamishness around insects. LaGrone hopes to eventually start her own business making natural hair care products for African Americans. “I might even be able to use herbs or flowers from the farm in the products,” she says.

“Every day I come here I learn something new. I didn’t know that a lot of fruits start life as a flower; that just blew my mind,” says Ray Kidd, 26. He was incarcerated from age 16 to 23 for violent crimes, and wants to break free of the prison cycle: Both his biological parents are in federal prison.

West Oakland Farms is not the only local program that hires ex-inmates. Planting Justice, which builds community produce gardens, also hires former prisoners. But given the crushing numbers of people exiting prison without work opportunities, there’s room for many more such undertakings.

Elaine BrownElaine Brown

Former Black Panther Launches Oakland Urban Farm to Give Ex-Prisoners a Fresh Start