Nigel Blackwood-Chirchir
CSA Coordinator / Driver
Isabella Zizi
Farm Stands and Added Value Products Manager
Isabella is the Farm to Table CSA Added Value Product Manager. If you know Isabella, you know she’s always standing up for clean air, water, and soil for everyone and the generations beyond, using non-violent direct actions and teach-ins. At Idle No More SF Bay, she’s taking on more of a leadership role, since this group used to be led by indigenous grandmothers, and is now passing it onto the younger generation, along with their intergeneration wisdom. Isabella is also a signatory on the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty. Isabella loves finding ways to “cross-pollinate” with organizers, especially those pushing back against the destruction and harm committed by refineries and oil industries across the globe.
Urban Tilth’s mission compliments everything she’s been pushing out, especially with things like sustainability, food sovereignty, environmental justice…it was the perfect fit and she’s been a great addition to Urban Tilth’s work as well. With a space like this, she finds it easier to connect with the younger generation who share similar values and are interested in the path that she’s been following. It also allows for more local connections, and informing one another about issues (like Chevron flaring nearby), actions, etc. Isabella was nominated for Contra Costa County 2017 Commuter of the year and received the 2015 Proclamation Letter in the City of Richmond, in honor of Native American Heritage Month.
Ebonay Mason
CSA Coordinator
Ebonay was born in San Diego, California and raised in Richmond, California. She has worked at Urban Tilth for two years and enjoys it so much. As a CSA Coordinator she helps harvest, pack and deliver the produce, free box program, and free farm stand. Before she applied to Urban Tilth she worked as an apprentice at Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California for their CSA program. After this program, she attempted to look for a similar space closer to home and found Urban Tilth. She was recently able to tough it out and graduate from John F. Kennedy even while the Covid-19 Pandemic devastated all the schools and student life. During her time at urban tilth she has assisted in mending the greenway, and helped reactivate the Free Farm Stand Program.
Marco Lemus
Food is Medicine Project Manager
Marco Lemus is a first-generation, Central-American and has lived in South Richmond all his life. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a major in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Marco joined the Urban Tilth Farm to Table CSA team in 2019, where he learned how to grow, clean, and distribute healthy locally grown food to local residents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marco helped expand the capacity of the paid CSA from 80 to 250 residents, and also helped establish the New Farmers to Families FREE Box Program which gives 190 Richmond families
Jonathan Leal
Member Engagement Manager
Jonathan Leal was born in Oakland California and moved around the bay throughout his childhood and finally settled in Richmond during his teenage years. They’ve been working with Urban Tilth for about four years now and says it’s probably their favorite job. Johnny’s responsibilities at Urban Tilth include helping run the CSA Free Farm Stand and Chicken Coop care. Johnny did the Summer Apprentice Program in 2017 and then was hired as staff in 2018. Since then, they’ve worked at different sites and gained a lot of knowledge from the land and the people around him. Johnny loves supporting and sharing info about local businesses, events, and wellness gatherings. By supporting local businesses, whether that be buying items or sharing info, it helps build connections and in a way builds support systems. Throughout their 4 years working in UT, building support systems and connections has been one of the best things Jonny loves about Urban Tilth.
Theresa Dixon
Procurement Manager
Theresa Dixon joined Urban Tilth in 2020. Starting in the pandemic, Theresa delivered the many new boxes added to our CSA, and now works with our partner farms curating what is in the box each week. She comes from a background in project management; mostly in the event world and community engagement. She studied permaculture in Costa Rica, and is excited about how these systems play into creating a sustainable CSA here at Urban Tilth. Her family taught her from a young age about herbalism and compost, keeping the magic of nature close to her heart. Outside of work, you can find her dancing, doing yoga, or playing with horses.
Kenneth De La Cruz
Logistics Manager
Kenneth de la Cruz was born in San Francisco and raised in San Pablo, California his whole life. He first started in Urban Tilth as an apprentice in the Summer Apprentice Program and now is working for the Farm to Table CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Currently, his job consists of packing and delivering boxes of vegetables and fruits to the community. Kenny also loves collecting house plants.
Chinue Fields
Operations Manager
I was born and raised in Salinas, CA and I fell in love with Richmond after moving to the Bay Area in 2008 because it reminds me so much of home. I started working with UT in March 2021 as the Operation & Facilities Manager after following along for years via social media. I thrive on sharing the experience of delicious and nourishing food with other folks. Having access to locally and intentionally grown, sustainably sourced foods has drastically changed my life for the better. We all deserve that! Food is medicine.