Community

Acta Non Verba Farm Grows in East Oakland

Published

12 years ago

February 26, 2014

By Richard Kevin Cartwright

Walking through the wide expanse of nurtured and cultivated vegetable beds – a seemingly endless array of broccoli, an almond tree, lemons hanging from struggling branches, among others – one cannot help but wonder if Acta Non Verba Farm is a hidden away oasis in the midst of decades-old disrepair and intransigence.

Kelly Carlisle doesn’t call herself a miracle worker, a do-gooder or even an agent of change. She calls herself a farmer.

“The fact that I call myself a farmer is highly offensive to many people I’ve talked to,” Carlisle said. “They look at me as if I’m from another planet sometimes. But, I am farmer. Bottom line.”

Not only is she a farmer, but clearly a very good one.

The beds of greens, broccoli, cabbage, and fava bean bouquets suggest someone in tune with the process of seed to soil, cultivation and growth. Acta Non Verba Farm is a quarter acre plot located at Tassaforanga Park, a square area surrounded by the David Baker designed Tassaforanga housing complexes.

Much of the farming and nurturance has come from Carlisle herself, along with the assistance of students from Oakland public schools – Kindergarten through 8^th grades – helping during the entire process from seed to mature vegetable.

Photo by Carrie LeCompte.

And as a result, 100 percent of the proceeds from homemade salsa, jam, marinara sauce and other items made from their vegetables and by them, go towards their savings accounts.

“I have to keep looking at the babies. I’m trying my best to cultivate their imaginations, to help them remain open to the wonder of this beautiful gift of growing our own food,” she said.

Carlisle wasn’t always open to the wonder of growing her own food. She tells of how she thought of her parents as backwards for growing rows of collard greens, tomato plots and a pecan tree in their backyard.

It wasn’t until after having been laid off from a corporate job during the initial days of Barack Obama’s first term as president that she began r thinking about the meaning of her life.

She bought lemons from a local store that looked and felt prefabricated. “I just knew those things they called lemons didn’t grow from a lemon tree,” she said. “I knew better than that. I decided right there that I wanted to grow something.”

Carlisle bought soil, grape seeds and garbage cans, planted the seeds, and spent an entire year witnessing tiny bundles of grapes clinging up and along flowing trellises. She was deeply hooked.

“I believe that was my Sankofa moment,” she said. “I knew I was meant to grow food; that it was deep in my blood.”

Now, the challenges for Carlisle and others in the East Oakland neighborhood is a belief that there can not only be a sustainable community farm that provides food to an area without a viable supermarket or healthy food options, but that everyday people can discard years of trauma and neglect to grow and support food development.

“Some in the community love that we are here, but so many don’t recognize that we are here,” she said.

Access to land is another source of resistance to Carlisle and her desire to expand food production in East Oakland. Landowners and decision-makers allow multiple acres of land throughout East Oakland to sit fallow and unattended.

Carlisle has implored leaders to implement AB 551 (Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones), which offers tax incentives to landowners with lots to put their land to agricultural use. Thus far, the only audible thing she has heard has been the shuffling of feet and echoes of slamming doors in her face.

“It’s a very interesting dynamic to see when we say we want to actually produce our own food, to not be dependent on other people for our survival,” she said.

In the meantime, Carlisle continues to cultivate her calling. “The plants are always teaching me lessons, nurturing life lessons,” she said.

For information about the farm, go to: http://anv2014.wordpress.com/ or call (510) 972-3276. The farm is located a: 1001 83rd Ave. in Oakland.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

3 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

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By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke