East Oakland is a USDA-designated food desert, meaning many residents lack access to sources of fresh and nutritional food.

Food access is a national crisis that affects an estimated one in nine Americans, and nowhere is this issue more pronounced than in Northern California’s Bay Area. The City of San Francisco is the birthplace of the farm-to-table movement, which prides itself on bringing local, largely organic produce to restaurants, grocery stores, and school cafeterias. That philosophy only goes so far.

Less than 20 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge, many residents of East Oakland are still doing the bulk of their shopping at convenience stores. In 2010, Kelly Carlisle asked herself, “What would it look to bring the benefits of the farm-to-table movement to East Oakland?” Her answer to that question eventually became Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project.

Watch Kelly’s story–and how Acta Non Verba is bringing local, sustainable food to East Oakland–above.