Growing Food, Growing Jobs

Relying on a climate-sensitive approach to farming, Growing Justice trains incarcerated and justice system-impacted people in high-tech agriculture and food production while expanding access to fresh, healthy food in prisons and under-resourced communities. 

Growing Justice is a national workforce development program designed to tackle two problems at once: the striking lack of fresh, healthy food in prison and in the lower income communities most incarcerated people come from and return to – problems documented in our 2020 report Eating Behind Bars – and high unemployment rates among formerly incarcerated people.

Vertical farms are indoor stacked growing systems that allow crops to be grown year-round, with far less water and land than traditional agriculture while producing consistent, high quality yields. When built behind bars, these farms have the potential to provide multiple overlapping benefits: providing access to high-tech job training and simultaneously putting thousands of pounds of fresh leafy greens onto prison trays each month.

The program is currently live at Camille G. Graham Correctional Institution in South Carolina, the Central California Women’s Facility in California, and at a training farm in our Oakland office, where produce is distributed to local partners.

Our vertical farm at Camille G. Graham Correctional Institution produces 3,400 heads of lettuce per week for incarcerated people at CGGCI and nearby facilities.

While a healthy salad might sound simple, these greens represent something profound for people who have historically had extremely limited access to nutritious food while incarcerated.

To link training with employment in a rapidly expanding industry expected to be valued at $155.6 billion dollars globally by 2026, Growing Justice is partnering with an expanding list of agribusinesses across the United States.

Want to hire our trainees, receive our food, or become a community partner? Get in touch!

Our current partners include: