REGISTRATION REQUIRED: www.givinggrove.org/special-event

Join The Giving Grove on August 4 at 12:30 pm CST for a conversation with activist, advocate, and farmer Karen Washington. Learn about Karen’s passion for encouraging people to grow food, her use of the term “food apartheid,” her advice for nonprofits working in urban agriculture – and her favorite fruit tree!

Bring your questions for Karen, and don’t miss this opportunity to soak in her wisdom!

This event is free to attend, but registration is required.

Thank you to the Gattermeir Family Foundation for sponsoring this event!

Meet the Speaker:

Karen has been a resident of the Bronx for more than 26 years, although in 2015 she began living part time in Orange County, NY, near a 5-acre cooperative farm she runs with three other women. Since 1985 Karen has been a community activist, striving to make New York City a better place to live. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, Karen worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate, she stood up and spoke out for garden protection and preservation.

As a member of the La Familia Verde Community Garden Coalition, she helped launched a City Farms Market, bringing garden fresh vegetables to her neighbors. She also co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization of volunteers committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. In 2012 Ebony magazine voted her one of the 100 most influential African Americans in the country, and in 2014 she received the James Beard Leadership Award.