Our Mission
1 Freedom For All’s mission is to restore community sovereignty and cultural healing by reclaiming and teaching Black and Indigenous new and beginning farmers ancestral farming practices and to revive ancestral building techniques that honor our culture and connection to the land.
Our Vision:
We envision a future where Black, Brown and Indigenous communities are sovereign, resilient, and deeply rooted in their cultural heritage. It is a world where regenerative agriculture and ancestral building are commonplace, healing both the land and the people. In this future, every community has the knowledge, resources, and freedom to nourish itself, build sustainable homes, and thrive in harmony with the land for generations to come.
How we got our start
In 2017, 1 Freedom for All (1 Freedom) co-founders, Hector Gerardo and Elizabeth Guerra worked in coalition to bring the arts, culture and activism to South Bronxites through Saturday classes at the Andrew Freedman home -- a community space, in the heart of the South Bronx. They recruited participants from the surrounding schools, after school programs, churches, train stations and bus stops. Every Saturday, they worked with a group of fifty people – young people and their caretakers (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, foster parents, etc.) -- to teach them the importance of organizing for change and campaign development. Participants also taught Hector and Elizabeth- about the importance of passing the baton onto younger generations, developing their leadership and in turn building a base of engaged community members. It was clear -- folks loved the arts, and learning ways to express themselves using a spectrum of art forms, but knew that they didn’t have access to a program like the one Elizabeth and Hector created in their own schools. In August 2017, Hector and Elizabeth did just that – pulling together various resources, community members, friends and family, they created 1 Freedom for All. Freedom and Elizabeth knew their experience in the Spring with members of the South Bronx community was a need that had to be met collectively.
In 2021
In 2022 1Freedom — in collaboration with the University of Connecticut, the African Alliance of RI, and Keney Park Sustainability Project —created the Venture Farming Institute, a cohort-based agricultural training program for aspiring Farm & Land Stewards Who Identify As Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian or Person of Color, And Live in Connecticut & Rhode Island.
The Venture Farming Institute (VFI) was founded by a group of dedicated community leaders, Liz, Freedom, Jiff, Robert, Herb, and Julius, who aimed to address a fundamental question: How can we ensure new farmers of color are successful?
The history of agriculture in the U.S. has led to substantial land loss for many farmers of color, amounting to over $326 billion as of 2024. Farmers who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Latinx) make up only about 9% of agricultural landowners, while white landowners account for 91% of the market. This disproportionate ownership over the decades is a crucial aspect to consider, as it contributes to the ongoing failures in food systems that continue to impact many underrepresented groups in the U.S. Therefore, the challenge is not merely finding farmers of color but rebuilding them.
With professional backgrounds in areas ranging from women's maternal health, non-profit management, to food and crop production, these community leaders set out on a path of reclamation. Their exploration led them to develop a training program for aspiring farmers of color in the agricultural sector.
Through their research, they learned about the story of Venture Smith, the son of an African king, who was enslaved at an early age in Rhode Island but later purchased his freedom, and that of his wife and children in Connecticut. Smith's autobiography details his experiences and determination to live as a free man, mastering various business and agricultural trades in the early 1700s. His resilience and visionary work inspired them to honor Venture Smith’s legacy by naming the program after him, encouraging both program leaders and students enrolled to remember their ancestral histories and remain committed to their dreams.
The vision of this community-supported, farmer and community led, programs is as follows:
Mutual aid: Our mutual aid work is rooted in sustainable farming to address food access. We grow fresh produce which is then gathered and shared directly with our community by community organizers. This creates a network of nourishment and information, where food pick-up sites also act as bulletin boards for local news and solidarity.
Community Led Organizing: Communities members built and cultivated the relationships necessary to support local initiatives in their neighborhoods, partnering with tenants associations, urban and rural farms, restaurants, nonprofits and local organizations.
Farmer Training: 1Freedom provided the platform and support for Youth Organizers to ask questions, investigate, and present their findings around issues they see in the NYC food system and in their lives. Youth Organizers participated in skills-based workshops, discussions around systematic oppression in our food system, and studied the central role of food in social movements in resisting and re-imagining our society.
