West Sacramento's Indigenous Urban Farms Grow Fresh Food and Community | KQED

"“I just sat there, and I closed my eyes, and I listened,” he said. “I saw what it was they were doing as a system to try to break us down, to kidnap us off the streets and profit off of us.” Melbourne spent time getting educated in prison and learned that it costs California nearly $128,000 annually to incarcerate a person. That realization stayed with him. “I couldn't allow that to happen,” he said. “Not to me any longer, or to anybody I knew or anybody in my community.”"

"When Melbourne was released, he returned to West Sacramento with a different sense of purpose - thinking about how to intervene with young people, before they ended up where he had. “We know that if you feed a kid better, they'll perform better,” he said. “Test scores go up, behavior problems go down.” Since 2018, he has built the nonprofit Three Sisters Gardens, spanning four farms across West Sacramento. But, not without some challenges."

"The model remains susceptible to fluctuations in federal funding priorities. Melbourne had set his sights on a $21 million grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency, a program that was discontinued by the Trump administration. Currently, the organization depends on a mix of local and state funding, with land leased from the city at a subsidized rate of $1 per month. “It took a lot of learning to know that I can transform what used to be an illegal business into a legal business,” said Melbourne."

"Melbourne sees access to food as one entry point. But the work extends beyond nutrition - into job training, workforce development and life skills. “I want to use the lived experience that I have for all the pain and suffering that I went through to be able to change these youngsters, to divert them,” he said about being a mentor, educator and a resource f"

Melbourne described listening and recognizing a system designed to break people down, kidnap them off the streets, and profit from incarceration. He learned in prison that California costs nearly $128,000 annually to incarcerate a person, and he decided to prevent that outcome for himself and others in his community. After release, he returned to West Sacramento with a focus on intervening with young people before they ended up incarcerated. He built the nonprofit Three Sisters Gardens, operating four farms since 2018, using better nutrition to improve test scores and reduce behavior problems. The model faces challenges from shifting federal funding priorities, including the discontinuation of a planned EPA grant. The organization relies on local and state funding and subsidized city land leases. The work includes job training, workforce development, and life skills, using lived experience to mentor and divert youth.

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