February 11, 2016

 

Literacy for Environmental Justice is an innovative program that uses native plants to promote ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco – one of the poorest and most polluted neighborhoods in the nation.

 

LEJ was founded in 1998. Since then the organization has:

• Developed the Candlestick Point Native Plant Nursery which grows 20,000 locally appropriate native plants annually “which support partners, agencies, and individuals to realize their large and small scale efforts to cultivate sustainable native plant habitats.”
• Created a Community Garden in the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area where students and volunteers grow vegetables and native plants
• Developed programs in area schools using native plants to promote environmental justice, ecoliteracy and local stewardship
• Received a $1 million grant to restore the native wetlands and plant communities in the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, formally a polluted industrial wasteland adjacent to San Francisco Bay.