Our Story
Dreaming Out Loud has been rebuilding urban, community-based food systems, helping to increase access to healthy food and improve community health, developing low-income entrepreneurs and cooperatives, and training at-risk adult residents for sustainable, family-supporting wages since 2008.
Unique in our integrated, community-driven approach, DOL moves beyond the ‘food access’ paradigm and focuses on community self-determination and food sovereignty.
As an organization, we have grown in leaps and bounds. In 2011, we launched and began our community markets program. 72 students from our youth character development program participated in it. Dreaming Out Loud then created a youth-centered agriculture program resulting in a partnership to direct and manage an urban farm at Blind Whino in SW DC in 2013. After that, in 2016, our founder, Christopher Bradshaw, became a member of the Food Council and began community outreach for the Farm at Kelly Miller.
The launch of The Farm at Kelly Miller in 2017 saw us making positive strides toward the creation of a new local/regional food system! Marogram were distributed to 1,200 members across 20 community-based sites during the Summer seasons of 2020 and 2021.We believe strongly that control of food resources and food system assets meant to serve a community - including land and water, food-related enterprises, and the capital and labor - must rest with the community members. Critical funds, dedication and strong management are essential to the realization of our mission. Therefore, in the coming years, we intend to escalate our momentum and create more milestones.
Our Story Isn't Over
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We are stewards of the earth. A network of farmers and food producers in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and beyond.
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We build economic opportunity through farming, culinary arts, creating local market access for residents who are working towards their dream of entrepreneurship.
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We grow food, harvest food, and support local farmers and food producers to scale their food businesses up. We believe that everyone deserves to create the future they want to see and access the food they need!
