**MEDIA ADVISORY**
February 21, 2024
Contact: Diana Martinez – 860-580-9402 – diana@katalcenter.org
Follow online: #CutShutInvestCT | IG: CultivatingJustice
Saturday 2/24: Conference to Bring Together Unusual Mix of Participants, Including BILPOC Farmers, Business Owners, People Impacted by Mass Criminalization, Low-Income Families, Students, & Scholars
Growing Power ‘24 Expects Hundreds from Across Connecticut & Northeast for Workshops on Farming, Community Organizing, Agri-Business, Raising Chickens, Beekeeping, Closing Prisons, and More
Middletown, CT – On Saturday, February 24th, the Cultivating Justice project, in collaboration with Chick Ahoy Farm LLC and the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships at Wesleyan University, is hosting the second Growing Power workshop series focused on growing food, skills, and community power. The day-long program is focused on supporting participants, including members of the Middletown community, to gain farming skills while exploring connections to the fight for justice in the criminal legal system and beyond.
More than 300 people from across Connecticut and the Northeast are registered to attend the day-long event, with workshops about gardening and farming, raising chickens, composting with worms, herbal healing, freshwater fishing, community organizing, civic engagement, and much more.
- What: Growing Power
- When: Saturday, February 24th, 9am – 3pm
- Where: Wesleyan – 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, CT 06457
- Cost: The event is free.
- Who: The Cultivating Justice project of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, in collaboration with Chicks Ahoy Farm and the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships at Wesleyan University.
For the full list of workshops and the schedule, click here to see the guidebook for Growing Power. To get live updates about the series, follow Cultivating Justice on social media.
Background on Cultivating Justice: In Connecticut, more than 98% of registered farmers are white. The U.S. Department of Agriculture only allows registered farmers and growers to contribute to the Agricultural Census, which is taken every five years and directly shapes the Food and Farm Bill in Congress. This means the people most vulnerable to food insecurity in Connecticut are not included in the decisions that shape the federal Food and Farm Bill. These are the same communities targeted for mass criminalization and incarceration.
Cultivating Justice is a multi-generational project with leadership representing young people, elders, and those in between. The mission of Cultivating Justice is to nurture Connecticut’s next generation of farmers of color. We are teaching, organizing, and developing leadership among Black, Indigenous, and Latin People of Color (BILPOC) through farming, business development, and civic engagement.
###
