Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Gomez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Stephanie a lifelong Angeleno, lived in Arleta and would walk past this vacant & polluted lot almost daily, picturing what it could become—a green, welcoming space for community gathering and healing. At the time, she had just started transitioning into the environmental nonprofit space and pitched the idea to Haley Feng, who she was working with on a tree-planting project in South LA. She immediately saw the potential and brought in Madison Jaschke, a volunteer with a background in biology and gardening.
That’s when everything clicked.
We met for dinner, and the conversation didn’t end until the restaurant closed. Stephanie had even prepared a list of questions to see if they’d make good business partners—but that night, it became clear: they shared the same values and vision. They were the right people to build something meaningful together.
Our next meeting was on International Women’s Day 2020, whiteboard in hand, sketching out ideas for the types of food we’d grow and how we’d become a nonprofit. At first, we focused on reducing plastic and food waste at public events—knowing how wasteful festivals and gatherings could be.That’s when Shift Our Ways Collective was born—a name that reflected how deeply personal and local our mission really was.
Each founder brought something essential:
• Stephanie’s roots in Los Angeles, her passion for digital storytelling, business, and community organizing
• Haley’s expertise in equitable urban development , and nonprofit management
• Madison’s deep ecological knowledge and Midwest farming perspective
Then the pandemic hit. Food insecurity skyrocketed, and we planted our first seeds—lettuce, potatoes, strawberries, and a peach tree from our mentor Steve List. We canvassed door-to-door with tomato plants, building relationships and transforming that empty lot into a safe, green sanctuary.
For four years, they ran entirely on volunteer power until July 2024 .
Now with two backyard farm sites—one in Arleta and one in Reseda—Shift Our Ways Collective is home to community composting, culturally rooted farming, and a paid internship program that has graduated 33 young leaders so far. Their early For Neighbors initiative offered free garden bed installations to local households, and continues to inspire a key belief: that anyone can grow their own food, even in small urban spaces.
Shift Our Ways Collective isn’t just about food. It’s about shifting mindsets, reclaiming land, and building systems rooted in care, culture, and community. And it all began with one woman, one lot, and a big vision.
Shift Our Ways Collective is the result of shared vision, grit, and deep community love. We believe in transforming not just spaces, but the systems around them—with our hands in the soil and our roots in justice.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
At Shift Our Ways Collective, we’ve always believed that food should be free, land should be healing, and community should come first. But doing this work isn’t without real challenges.
Our “pay-what-you-can” model keeps our programming and produce accessible to everyone, but it also means we rely almost entirely on donations and small grants. We give away everything we grow—but many traditional funding structures don’t recognize the value of that.
We don’t own our land, which limits what we can build long-term. Many grants won’t fund land acquisition, and without ownership, we risk losing the very spaces our communities have helped transform.
We also face climate-related challenges every season: pests, extreme heat, drought conditions—all of which make farming more unpredictable and water-intensive each year.
Still, we continue—because our community is worth it.
Here’s how you can support:
Make a monthly donation, no matter the size—it helps sustain our “free food for all” model.
Sponsor land security and help us build permanent roots.
Share our story. Word of mouth grows movements.
We’re not just growing food—we’re shifting systems. And we can’t do it without you.
We’ve been impressed with Shift Our Ways Collective, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Shift Our Ways Collective, our work centers community, land, and cultural resilience. We transform underutilized spaces into vibrant backyard farms that offer free, organic, and culturally relevant produce to Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in the San Fernando Valley. Through regenerative farming, hands-on workshops, and intergenerational programming, we reconnect people to land, food, and one another.
Our model is rooted in mutual aid. Everything we grow is given away, and all of our programming operates on a pay-what-you-can basis. We believe accessibility should never be a barrier to wellness, education, or fresh food. Beyond food justice, our work cultivates space for joy, storytelling, healing, and organizing for climate-resilient futures.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What we love most is the people. From elders sharing stories about their gardens back home to kids proudly pulling carrots from the ground—it’s those everyday moments that remind us why we do this. We love building spaces that are beautiful, nourishing, and truly rooted in culture and care.
What’s hard is sustainability—not in the farming sense, but in keeping our work funded. Because we give all our produce away and run on a pay-what-you-can model, many traditional grants don’t support what we do. And each year, climate change brings more unpredictability—more pests, more heat, more water needs. But even with all that, we wouldn’t trade this work. The joy, the relationships, and the impact keep us grounded and growing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sowcollective.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shiftourways/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shiftourways
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shiftourwayscollective
