Brooklyn Supported Agriculture
We don't really use hierarchical terms, but if I had to describe what I do, I guess I’m like the CEO,” says Steph Wiley, more accurately described as a founding worker-owner of the Brooklyn Packers — a Black cooperative that sources veggies and fruit from multiple farms, then packs and delivers them to small food companies and nonprofits.
The co-op also runs Brooklyn Supported Agriculture, a weekly CSA service offering bountiful farm boxes of organic fruits, vegetables and other staples to Brooklyn residents for home delivery or pickup at Black-owned businesses across the borough. “We all get an equal vote, and we share in the profits,” says Steph, 47, who runs the businesses with five other worker-owners from their warehouse in East New York, along with folks they recently hired due to high demand.
Before founding the Brooklyn Packers in 2015, Steph managed a number of his own businesses, including a t-shirt company and dog walking service, in addition to co-founding Brooklyn’s Afro-Mosaic Soul dance collective. (Fun fact: In the ‘90s, Steph also moonlighted as a dancer on MTV’s “The Grind.”)
“But once I started working in food and taking cooperative development classes, I was like, ‘Oh, I love this,’” says the Queens native, who was employed at another CSA (which stands for Community Supported Agriculture) before starting the Brooklyn Packers and Brooklyn Supported Agriculture. “Everybody deserves affordable, high-quality food, no matter where they live, and we’re grateful to bring that to our neighbors.”
“It's important for Black folks to have access to land — land is freedom.”
With summer produce in full swing, Brooklyn Supported Agriculture green bags are currently stocked with a rotation of summer staples like corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers, plums, peaches and pluots. For $25, you get eight to ten varieties of local, all-organic fruits and vegetables with the option to add on eggs, cheese, herbs and other goods.
If you wanna be down, here’s how BSA works: Sign up at brooklynsupportedagriculture.com with your email address to receive a notice every Friday of the weekly green bag (plus add-ons) and a link to their ordering platform. You can opt for home delivery for an additional charge, or pick up your farm-fresh veggies from Grandchamps, a Haitian restaurant in Bed-Stuy, as well as Urban Asanas yoga studio and Lakou Cafe in Crown Heights. In a few weeks Brooklyn Supported Agriculture will expand its pick-up locations, which get a share of the profit, to include Brownsville Community Culinary Center, with more to follow in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx.
Brooklyn Packers and Brooklyn Supported Agriculture source from several organic farms in the Northeast: Oko Farms, an aquaponics farm that grows its crops from rooftops in Bushwick; Rock Steady Farm & Flowers, a women and queer-owned cooperative in upstate New York; and Landcaster Farm Fresh, another co-op in Pennsylvania. But to eventually own their supply chain, Steph and his wife are in the process of acquiring a farm upstate, where they’ll grow food for BSA.
“It's important for Black folks to have access to land — land is freedom. It’s the basis for all liberation,” he says. “This is key to building Black health and wealth around the future of food. When you invest in a Brooklyn Supported Agriculture share, you not only invest in your own health and wellness, but towards reclaiming an even stronger Brooklyn and a stronger food system.”
In addition to the regular business dealings of the Brooklyn Packers and Brooklyn Supported Agriculture, Steph and his fellow worker-owners have been working overtime to provide free food bags to New Yorkers who are increasingly in need during the pandemic.
“We are firmly rooted in food justice, which is firmly rooted in environmental justice, social justice, all the justices,” says Steph, who partners with three local mutual aid organizations — Ocean Hill-Brownsville Mutual Aid Network, Bed-Stuy Strong and Hold Down BK, led by the Central Brooklyn Food Coop — to distribute free groceries across Brooklyn.
Steph says his team’s collaborative approach to their work is an extension of their love for the community. “I love Brooklyn,” he says. “I mean, I love it so much. We have a strong Black business community here that really takes care of each other, in the best of times and in the worst of times, and I’m really happy to be a part of it.” —By Taylor Morton
brooklynsupportedagriculture.com
