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Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

Learn why we're donating 15% of today's sales to Planting Justice.

By Peak Design

November 28^th, 2023

TODAY WE ARE DONATING 15% OF WEBSITE SALES TO PLANTING JUSTICE.

Planting Justice is a nonprofit org based out of Oakland that has a unique and successful model for creating food justice for marginalized communities in the Bay Area. What exactly is food justice, what exactly does Planting Justice do, and why does Peak Design choose to support this org? Well, that's what we're here to talk about.

FOOD FOR THE FOLKS

In this context when we talk about 'food justice' we're referring to creating access to good, nutritious, affordable food for people in communities that systemically lack that access. 'Food insecurity' is a term used to describe communities who lack this access. Like in many large cities across the US, the San Francisco Bay Area contains many neighborhoods and communities that, by one definition or another, are food insecure. These neighborhoods are disproportionately home to lower-income people of color.

Enter Planting Justice. They do many things, but perhaps most notably, they run an enormous organic nursery deep in East Oakland. Our team has visited this spot several times, and the scale and variety of plants available is really something to behold. The facility, called Rolling River Nursery, is the most biodiverse collection of certified organic edible tree crops in North America. It's pretty wild to imagine this place existing in the middle of a major urban metropolis, nestled between a freeway and the Oakland International Airport flight path.

Beyond serving it's community with healthy food, the Rolling River Nursery is used as a hub to seed (literally) hundreds of other community gardens around the Bay Area. As of writing this, Planting Justice has established over 550 edible permaculture gardens across the region.

All of this is impressive and impactful. But it's the model that Planting Justice uses to staff and run their facilities that make their organization truly exceptional.

Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

FROM JAIL TO KALE

Planting Justice primarily employs the formerly-incarcerated. In doing so, they provide them with not just steady employment, but a real opportunity to successfully integrate back into society. Nursery workers are paid living wages and given comprehensive benefits. They are given extensive permaculture gardening training. And they instantly become part of a broad and supportive community of former prisoners who understand the challenges that come with re-entry. Workers are also able to participate in a variety of outreach programs for the communities around them...like educational activities offered at high schools, prisons, and juvenile detention facilities that give students an opportunity to learn about edible gardens, social justice, and holistic wellness.

When we toured the Rolling River Nursery and spoke to the people working there, it didn't take long to develop a profound appreciation for the impact this org has on getting formerly incarcerated people successfully and sustainably back on their feet.

A couple months ago, we met Sol Mercado who is the current Reentry Coordinator at the organization. She was serving a 16-year sentence when she joined Planting Justice’s garden program inside prison. “The garden became my sanctuary,” she said. She fell in love with gardening so much that she immediately went to work at the organization as soon as she got out of prison. “Because of Planting Justice, I’m able to afford my own housing, take care of my daughter, and sustain myself.”

Sol toured us through their expansive organic nursery in Oakland where they sell over 1100 varieties of fruit trees, bushes, and succulents that are available for sale at the nursery and on their website for buyers in different parts of the country. Watch the video below and you'll find that Sol's uplifting account of her time at Planting Justice is one of countless similar stories.

INVESTING IN OUR BACKYARD

Peak Design is proud to support Planting Justice through our 1% for the Planet commitment.

For the uninitiated, every year we donate 1% of our top-line sales revenue to environmental and social nonprofits, and every Giving Tuesday we pick one of those nonprofits to highlight. Past partners have included the Conservation Alliance, CalWild, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, the list goes on. We choose these partners based on a variety of factors, chief among them are alignment with our values, confidence that our donation will translate to impact, and focus on the people and places near and dear to us and our customers.

A bulk of our advocacy money goes to environmental nonprofits. But we believe that social justice—and in this case, food justice—is deeply connected to climate justice. Embedded in the term food justice is the philosophy that people have a right to healthy food, just as they have a right to clean air and water. All this is to say, we're lucky to have Planting Justice in our own backyard and we're exceptionally proud to support them. We hope you are too.

PS - HERE'S WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING

Whether or not you shop with us this Giving Tuesday, it's nice to have a line of sight from dollars donated to impact made. This is a crucial time for Planting Justice as they continue to expand their farm to serve more communities in dire need of fulfilling jobs and healthy food while living in conditions not typically ideal for sustainable food production. Their current goal is to raise $3 million to build an Aquaponics Incubator farm in the same East Oakland neighborhood they’ve served for years.

Money raised through our Giving Tuesday campaign will go towards this very rad project.

Life After Prison Is Dirty Work

© 2026 Peak Design

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