About Us

The Black Dollar Days Task Force recognizes that African Americans are underrepresented in farming in Washington. Currently, there is no local market in King County that supplies the types of vegetables that are relevant to the African American and African immigrant food culture. Low income communities frequently do not have access to fresh, wholesome produce and have higher rates of poor diet related illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and elevated cholesterol.

Clean Greens Farm & Market, under the umbrella of Black Dollar Days Task Force, operates as an agricultural producer engaged in the production of chemical-free greens.

The goal of the Clean Greens & Market program is five-fold:

1. Identify and harvest vegetables requested by the community. Selling these vegetables in a market located in the Central Area that is affordable to all people, especially low income people.

2. Foster greater understanding and appreciation of local food, nutrition and health. This will help to lower the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes that is very common with African Americans.

3. Provide the Central area residents with interest and/or experience in farming access to farm land, tools, mentors and resources;

4. Provide children opportunities to visit the farm, grow, harvest and learn about where food comes from, learn about ecological systems and water cycles and connect to the Earth which sustains us.

5. Provide farm jobs, training, and apprentice opportunities to African-American and inner city residents.

To help achieve these goals, the Task Force has signed a 5 year lease on 23 acres of land in Duvall, eastern King County for use by the Clean Greens Project. The Task Force has presently invested over $50,000 of its own money. In addition, we have leased rental property on the land to accommodate farm workers. We are currently seeking funding to continue developing the land so that we can have crops year round.

The members and supporters of the Task Force are confident in their movement to decrease social service dependency through the revitalization of our community. The Black Dollar Task Force is compelled to create projects to uphold its mission to design programs that foster community empowerment. The Clean Greens Farm & Market will do just that.

Photo courtesy of Camille Dohrn