Website: https://sarvodayainstitute.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarvodayainstitute/
1/2 acre historic homestead lot in Pomona, CA
OUR MISSION
Sarvodaya Institute work towards the upliftment of all, recognizing that we are all part of one great life and that our individual healing is our collective healing. Our work starts in the garden, a place where we can recognize ourselves in the soil, plants, insect, animals, and each other. We recognize all of this Earth as one garden, requiring care and love.
OUR STORY
Sarvodaya Institute grew out of The Growing Home in 2014 to show how the (sub)urban world can transition away from isolation and consumption and towards creativity, community, and connection.
We now maintain three demonstration gardens: Sarvodaya Farms, The Growing Commons and The Growing Home. Through these gardens we work towards the revitalization and healing of this Earth, recognizing that healing of people and soil is one in the same.
With the support of Sarvodaya Institute Members, we offer scholarships all of our events, and our videos are available to anyone and everyone. If you too feel empowered by our work, please consider becoming a Member.
Farmer Rishi Kumar
Pomona Urban Farm
Pomona, CAA demonstration ecological urban farm
The Pomona Urban Farm is a education-focused urban farm established by The Growing Club in September 2014. At the farm, we seek to demonstrate how urban farms can be centers of social, economic, and ecological regeneration and healing in (sub)urban centers. The Pomona Urban Farm is the primary site for our urban farming initiative, Sarvodaya Farms. At the farm, we also seek to demonstrate how small farms, when managed with advanced ecological farming techniques can grow significant quantities of beyond organic produce with a fraction of the water used by chemically-intensive agriculture.
The Pomona Urban Farm is on a 26,000 sq ft (1/2 acre) historic homestead lot in Pomona, CA. Pomona, named after the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance, had a short history as an agriculture powerhouse in the early 1900’s due to its rich silt-loam soils, where the environmentally and socially exploitative citrus industry flourished for many decades. In establishing the Pomona Urban Farm, we seek to redirect Pomona’s history from one of suppression and exploitation to one of regeneration and abundance.
The Growing Club began management of this property in August 2014, and since then the farm has made a tremendous transition from a barren, exploited property to one of inexplicable richness, diversity, and abundance. The farm demonstrates a variety of ecological farming practices, going far beyond the standards required for certified organic agriculture. The primary feature of the farm is that it is managed with absolutely no tillage. In just one of year after the start of our ecological management, the Pomona Urban Farm’s soil improved by leaps and bounds, with soil organic matter rising from 1% to 13%, water holding capacity increasing by five fold, and yields rising each year.
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