The St. Pete Youth Farm and Carla Bristol are helping the community grow their own food

The St. Pete Youth Farm and Carla Bristol are helping the community grow their own food

On October 5th the amazing Carla Bristol returnsed to BPW to share the great work being done at the St. Pete Youth Farm and other related activites here in our community.

 

Carla Bristol was born in Guyana, raised in Brooklyn and has lived in St. Petersburgh, Florida since 1996. She currently serves as the Collaboration Manager at St. Pete Youth Farm, a dynamic youth development program on St. Petersburg’s mostly African American southside. Under Carla’s leadership, St Pete Youth Farm gives it’s youth participants a wide range of experiences that allow them to develop skills in urban agriculture, aquaponics, public speaking and peer leadership.

 

In 2014 Carla left her corporate job to do what she always wanted to do, live a life steeped in community. She is a familiar figure in and around St. Petersburg where she is a major influencer and organizer in local electoral politics, a mentor and a champion of Black businesses. She is the owner of Gallerie 909 which features and promotes artists from St. Pete, the Caribbean and Africa. She is a mother of two and recently became the caretaker for her father.

 

Carla is leading a new initiative at St. Pete Youth Farm that seeks to create a more decentralized model of urban agriculture by distributing 500 mini-gardens and 20,000 seedlings to community members.  Carla Bristol is an important emerging food system leader.