{"id":167051,"date":"2025-03-05T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=167051"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:46:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:46:01","slug":"make-farm-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2025\/03\/make-farm-san-diego\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight On an Urban Farm Helping Refugees and Immigrants Build Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a green oasis, set amid the freeways and malls of San Diego&#8217;s Mission Valley, a garden grows. Produce grown here fills subscription CSA boxes, as well as plates at the project&#8217;s cafe a few miles west. But MAKE Projects isn\u2019t just a farm or cafe. It\u2019s a community-supported agriculture program that furthers a larger purpose: it\u2019s a training ground for refugee and immigrant women.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167106\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167106\" style=\"width: 720px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"7d7e4d\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7d7e4d;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167106 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sdsu-mission-valley-partners-with-make-projects-to-launch-make-farm-main-PHOTO-png.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sdsu-mission-valley-partners-with-make-projects-to-launch-make-farm-main-PHOTO-png.webp 720w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/sdsu-mission-valley-partners-with-make-projects-to-launch-make-farm-main-PHOTO-560x315.webp 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photography by San Diego State University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the American Immigration Council, women slightly outnumber men at over <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org\/research\/snapshot-immigrant-women-united-states\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">23 million<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> female immigrants in the U.S. But while immigrants move by choice, refugees have been forced to flee their homes due to violence, war, hunger and climate change. Some need items as basic as shoes. At MAKE, these women are offered not just support, but a launching pad to their new lives in the US.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sdmake.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MAKE Projects<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which stands for Merging Agriculture Kitchens and Employment, is a spin-off of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rescue.org\/united-states\/san-diego-ca\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">International Rescue Committee<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a refugee resettlement agency, and provides the women three months of paid worker training through a community garden, kitchen and 16-table caf\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;While not all refugee and immigrant women have a strong connection to farm, everyone has a strong connection to foods that evoke memories, nostalgia or just an important sense of cultural identity,&#8221; says Anchi Mei, MAKE&#8217;s executive director and founder.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167102\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167102\" style=\"width: 853px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"5e5f53\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #5e5f53;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167102 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Anchi-Mei_ED-MAKE-Projects-headshot-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Anchi-Mei_ED-MAKE-Projects-headshot-1.webp 853w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Anchi-Mei_ED-MAKE-Projects-headshot-1-231x346.webp 231w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Anchi-Mei_ED-MAKE-Projects-headshot-1-682x1024.webp 682w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Anchi-Mei_ED-MAKE-Projects-headshot-1-768x1152.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167102\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anchi Mei. Photography by MAKE Projects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mei launched the nonprofit in 2017 to address the lack of workforce development opportunities for refugee women with English language and cultural barriers, who can find themselves isolated and trapped in poverty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Over time, we have come to understand that access to employment is more than financial. It is personal, emotional, social and benefits not just the immediate family but the whole community.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mei&#8217;s program for women and youth, which has built partnerships with local colleges, community organizations, employers and customers, is a necessary bridge. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weekly English coaching provided by volunteers helps smooth the path for the newcomers. But it all begins with the universal language of food, in all its worldly flavors. The first two weeks are spent on the farm.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167103\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167103\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"776b62\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #776b62;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167103 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FOH-Training-Photos-1-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FOH-Training-Photos-1-1.webp 960w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FOH-Training-Photos-1-1-260x346.webp 260w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FOH-Training-Photos-1-1-768x1024.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167103\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Work training at MAKE Cafe. Photography by MAKE Projects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MAKE Farm, a roughly quarter acre plot, uses low-till practices to improve soil health and nutrient density in crops, along with intercropping &#8211; growing two or more crops close together &#8211; and integrated pest management. Fish and kelp meal are the main fertilizers. Throughout the grounds, pollinator plants and bird habitats promote cross-pollination and a more complex ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The resulting bounty travels to the kitchen side, but it loops back to the farm in leftovers to nourish new plantings. &#8220;We promote living soils with a robust composting system using our restaurant food waste and regular applications of compost teas,&#8221; Mei says.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta read-more\">\n<div class=\"mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-flex\">\n<p><a class=\"full\" title=\"READ MORE\" href=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2023\/11\/refugee-farmers-homeland-crops\/\">full_link<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex\">\n<p class=\"title mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-title h1\">READ MORE<\/p>\n<div class=\"description\">\n<p>Meet the refugee farmers planting the crops of their homelands in Texas soil.<\/p>\n<div class=\"svg mfo-wysiwyg-custom-cta-svg\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farm Program Manager Robbie Wilcox chooses a diverse planting mix. A winter CSA mix contained Taiwanese chrysanthemum greens alongside more familiar customer favorites: spinach, radishes, beets and sweet potato. The produce goes into several dishes at the cafe, like the MAKE Market Salad and Wellness Soup Bowl, tailored by chef Renee Fox around whatever is fresh and abundant that week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the women plant, prune and prep vegetable boxes for subscribers, they ease into the many skills needed to enter the workforce. And when they begin the next phase of the program by working at MAKE&#8217;s cafe in North Park, they continue to hone their culinary and hospitality skills serving up such fare as Afghan chicken, cardamom crepes and toasted milk bread; recipe ideas the women share from their own experiences. Several graduates have gone on to work in food service at local hospitals.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We are a better San Diego with more different voices, flavors and faces at the table.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not all choose to work with food, however. Gulnara, who is originally from Kazakhstan, found a job in finance and operations at a local nonprofit. Others work in local hospitals and schools, like Nejat, a recent graduate from Ethiopia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The farm to table training is a unique way to enter the American workforce, Mei says. Students learn essential job readiness skills and expectations as they transition from the farm to a more intensive work experience in MAKE&#8217;s restaurant. And with participants who have hailed from over 30 countries since the program began, it\u2019s a cultural dialogue that enriches the entire San Diego community.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_167104\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167104\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-dominant-color=\"7b6559\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7b6559;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-167104 not-transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Zahra-COH-1.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Zahra-COH-1.webp 960w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Zahra-COH-1-260x346.webp 260w, https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Zahra-COH-1-768x1024.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167104\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Working at MAKE Cafe. Photography by MAKE Projects.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last year, she says, &#8220;was epic.&#8221; Thanks to a large workforce development grant, they expanded their facilities and scaled up the adult trainee program, allowing them to work with many more refugee and immigrant women of all different English speaking levels, and educational and professional backgrounds from their home countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, they are preparing to move to a more permanent address, as they work through the permitting for a new MAKE cafe in San Diego&#8217;s Normal Heights neighborhood, not far from their current location. It&#8217;s expected to open before the end of the year. In addition to the existing farm in Mission Valley, the new cafe will add its own 2,000 square foot garden on-site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mei says they won&#8217;t be deterred by the roiling political climate, as another round of the Trump administration again takes aim at immigrants. After all, they survived the first go-round, and forged their way during COVID, the toughest of times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We will continue to be nimble, resourceful and resilient, much like our participants,&#8221; she says. Fortunately, MAKE has a strong community of local supporters that believe in their mission.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We are a better San Diego with more different voices, flavors and faces at the table.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a green oasis, set amid the freeways and malls of San Diego&#8217;s Mission Valley, a garden grows. Produce grown here fills subscription CSA boxes, as well as plates at the project&#8217;s cafe a few miles west. But MAKE Projects isn\u2019t just a farm or cafe. It\u2019s a community-supported agriculture program that furthers a larger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":167105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33285],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33068],"tags":[33218,33097,33305],"article-theme":[33291],"class_list":["post-167051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-culture-heritage","tag-labor","tag-systems","format-spotlight-on","article-theme-people"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Spotlight On an Urban Farm Helping Refugees and Immigrants Build Community - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a green oasis, set amid the freeways and malls of San Diego&#039;s Mission Valley, a garden grows. 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