About DOL

Mission

To create economic opportunities for the DC metro region’s marginalized communities through building a healthy, equitable food system.

DOL is rebuilding urban, community-based food systems through cooperative social enterprise: increasing access to healthy food, improving community health, supporting entrepreneurs and cooperatives from low-income communities; and creating opportunities for at-risk residents to earn sustainable, family-supporting wages and build wealth. We believe that all communities deserve equal access to fresh, healthy food choices, but that achieving this requires moving beyond the “access” paradigm to a focus on community self-determination and food sovereignty. We are working to create an integrated pipeline to jobs, economic opportunity, and community wealth-building for our most marginalized communities, utilizing the food system as the catalyst.

Brief History

In 2008, Christopher Bradshaw founded Dreaming Out Loud as a response to educational and socioeconomic disparities facing communities in Washington, DC. DOL began with teaching character and leadership development in DC public charter schools but soon recognized systemic issues around the food system which led to the creation of community farmers markets, with the help of a local church and one farmer.

Chris also recognized that these issues were connected to historical legacies of slavery, sharecropping, and entrenched systemic racism with intersections across the spectrum of social justice issues. As the organization evolved, we expanded into urban agriculture and food system work with a focus on economic empowerment of marginalized communities.

Through economic opportunity, using workforce development and entrepreneurship training, DOL is driving deeper change within the community creating financial stability and food security. DOL aims to use the food system as a powerful tool of resistance, resilience, and advocacy for structural change.

Transparency