POLLINATE! 2025 COHORT

Chase Louden (he/him) is interested in farming and earth stewardship as a form of resistance, rebuilding, and survival. Colonialism and capitalism had wreaked havoc on our collective relationship to the land across Turtle Island. His work has been focused on supporting food and land sovereignty in Brooklyn while exploring different forms of land stewardship. He has worked with community gardens and urban agriculture projects for a few years now, and all of the work he has encountered was done to provide culturally appropriate healthy food and for people to have access to the land they live on. These have included working to develop food forests, a developing community needs assessment, and supporting crop plan development for small farms and gardens. Just as perennials dig deep roots to remain in the soil, food and land sovereignty will ground our liberation to remain to fight against displacement and climate change. He’s especially interested in learning about worker-owned cooperatives, decolonial agriculture practices, food access models, irrigation/crop management, harvesting protocols, and farm finances.

Ash (aka Farmer THEMbo | they/them/siya) is a community and self-studied beginning HERBAN farmer, cultural organizer, herbalist, earthtender, and educator dedicated to agroecology, emergent strategy, and community care. They have tended to plants, land, people, and cultural practices most of their life - growing at home, at community gardens, with schools, and now as a diversified vegetable grower. They grow culturally significant crops and connect learners of many ages and lived experiences to food and medicine ways through educational programs, mentorship, mutual aid, storytelling, and event production. Ash strives to advocate for and cultivate equitable, just and sustainable foodsheds, ecosystems, and farm culture that center cultural traditions, indigenous knowledge systems and community health. They are a member of the PA Food Policy Council Urban Agriculture Working Group and was a steering committee member of the Bio-Intensive, Regenerative Market Garden (BIRM) Project, supporting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farmers in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Ash is also a student of the Ira Wallace Seed School, and hopes to co-steward local seed hubs and share seed farming and saving practices. Through their intention and work, Ash cultivates community-building, uplifts food sovereignty, and nurtures interdependence through food, land-stewardship, joy and skill-sharing.

Farmer Tolu (she/they) was introduced to the urban agriculture movement in 2013 in Detroit where they were born. But finally took the leap of faith to become a farmer in 2020 after relocating to the DMV. Tolu is the founder of OlaLekan (oh-lah-lay-khan) Farm, a Black owned diversified vegetable and education farm also producing herbs and flowers in Upper Marlboro, MD. Altogether, OlaLekan Farm is a destination in the community for wellness, wholesome connection, and education focused on resolving food apartheid and supporting the next generation of farmers and land stewards.

Nailah Garard (she/they) is a budding agroecologist and artist based in Long Island, NY. After receiving a Master of Environmental Management and Master of Arts in Religion at Yale University, she comes back to her hometown to develop Succotash Gardens, a small-scale community garden and mutual aid hub in Roosevelt, NY. To this work, she brings five years of experience studying and practicing urban agriculture, land conservation, and ethnobotany while working with several community farmers and conservationists. She also brings an eco-womanist theology or a faith that centers the voices of Black/Indigenous women as they engage in earth justice. Nailah is excited to join POLLINATE to continue to uplift the intersection of gender and farming, learn farm-to-table skills on a larger scale, and advance land and food sovereignty in her communities.