Black Farmers Collective (BFC) was first germinated in 2016, amongst a group of valuable community members alongside BFC’s
Co-Founder; Ray Williams.

These members conceived the vision to build a Black-led food system by developing a cooperative network of food system actors, acquiring and stewarding land, facilitating food system education, and creating space for Black liberation in healing and joy, responded to a Request for Proposal (RFP) through Seattle Housing Authority with the notion to steward an easement - a narrow strip, roughly 1.5 acres - along the I-5 Highway in Central Seattle. Adjacent to the newly re-developed Yesler Terrace, the dream was to create a farm that could serve the community. 

We were successfully awarded the contract after negotiations between Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and Washington Department of Transportation (WDOT), to which we began rooting ourselves on the ground in 2018.

Prior to rooting ourselves at 715 Yesler Way. Black Farmers Collective operated under a Fiscal Sponsor, with much of the core-farmily serving as volunteer-stewards in the first three {3} years!  We’d launched our inaugural project; Yes Garden, a city owned lot on 14th and Yesler. We partnered with K-12 Educational Programs in the area -  to close the food-access gap by growing our own culturally relevant foods - and hosted ‘Wednesday Market’s’, with the purpose to support families and neighbors. In the later portion of our grow-season, volunteer-lead Kim Mustafa, established a quaint Holiday Tree Sales. Funds received through our inaugural project helped spearhead the trajectory of our vision. The original Yes Garden Site now serves as the Yesler Terrace Condos; the fate of many underutilized green-spaces across urban communities.

By 2018, these members officially formed a Board of Directors and launched what is now known as Black Farmers Collective.

At the intersectionality of COVID-19 and George Floyd, there was a rise to create movements surrounding community care and collective liberation. What did this mean, exactly, for Black Farmers Collective? At the root of who {we} are, Black liberation through food sovereignty, in spaces built on cooperation and interconnectedness with the environment and the community, where our knowledge and creativity are boundless. {we} knew that this meaningful statement was more than just words; instead, action-oriented with Yes Farm serving as the “pulse” to the City of Seattle’s Yesler Terrace - it’s commUNITY; our neighbors, friends, and families.