Welcome, Angelina Alanis! Angelina is the Communications & Partnerships Coordinator at Festival Beach Food Forest. She talks about the importance of food forests and urban green spaces in general. The Festival Beach Food Forest, based in Austin, Texas, was founded on Indigenous land stewardship practices. It’s filled with edible plants, rest spaces, and a communal gathering area under the tree canopy where different events are held, including weekly yoga sessions and monthly plant ID walks. This abundant space was intentionally designed to build community and foster a connection to the Earth. It sits next to a large highway, I-35, and is situated in a historically redlined neighborhood. The Festival Beach Food Forest illustrates the power of healing through community and urban green spaces, and is a great example for cities everywhere.

We acknowledge that Austin, Texas lies on unceded Sana, Comanche, Coahuiltecan, and Jumanos land.

Resources

• Festival Beach Food Forest Website

• Address: 25-1/2 Waller Street, Austin, Texas 78702

• Donate to Festival Beach Food Forest

• Instagram

• Facebook

Definitions

• Food forest: a type of garden where you grow many different fruits, nuts, herbs, and vegetables. It is designed to mimic a natural forest and has many different layers, from trees to shrubs, ground cover plants, vines, and more.

• Redlining: typically refers to the practice of creating and enforcing discriminatory policies or laws, particularly in relation to housing, lending, and access to resources. The term originates from the practice of drawing red lines on maps to outline areas that were deemed too risky for investment, often based on the racial or ethnic composition of the neighborhood.

• Permaculture: a type of agriculture intended to be self-sufficient, based on traditional practices that use natural resources and minimize waste.

• Topography: features of land surfaces or landforms

• Swales: a sunken or marshy place with gently sloping sides designed to manage water runoff, filter pollutants, and increase rainwater infiltration. Bioswales are swales that involve the inclusion of plants or vegetation.

• Natives or native plants: a plant is native if it has occurred naturally for thousands of years in a region, ecosystem, or habitat without human introduction.

• Biodiverse: Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. The more biodiverse an area, the more species variety there is.

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Cover art by Vivian Garcia (@viv_doodles)

Intro and Outro music: Clocks by Smith the Mister (All rights and credit go to Smith the Mister. No copyright infringements intended)