The Cast Iron Collective is a collaboratively led nonprofit advancing food literacy, food sovereignty, ecological justice, and community-powered workforce development.

Who We Are

The Cast Iron Collective began the way many community efforts do — around kitchen tables, folding tables, and bake-sale tables. Neighbors came together to raise money, share food, and support one another in small but meaningful ways. Those gatherings revealed something deeper: food was more than nourishment. It was connection, culture, resilience, and power.

What started as community bake sales grew into a shared vision — to build something bigger, more lasting, and more transformative. Today, we are a full-fledged nonprofit uniting urban farmers, educators, artists, chefs, and cooperative leaders committed to reshaping local food systems through justice-centered, community-led work.

  • We chose the name The Cast Iron Collective because cast iron is strong, enduring, and seasoned through care and use — much like community. The Cast iron carries memory. It feeds generations. It requires tending. And when well cared for, it lasts a lifetime. Our work embodies the same spirit: rooted in tradition, strengthened through practice, and capable of holding the heat of collective transformation.

  • Our foundation is built on the wisdom, creativity, and lived experiences of the communities we serve. We grew out of mutual support, not charity; out of relationships, not hierarchy. Everything we do is guided by the belief that communities already hold the knowledge and leadership needed to shape their own food futures. Our role is to nurture it, honor it, and help it grow.

  • We believe food sovereignty — not just food access — is essential for true community wellbeing. That means access to land, culturally meaningful foods, ecological knowledge, and the power to decide how food is grown, prepared, shared, and celebrated. We work to dismantle barriers and build pathways so families can reclaim their agency in the food system.

  • Our approach centers land, relationships, and hands-on learning. We cultivate spaces where people can plant seeds, harvest abundance, cook nourishing meals, exchange knowledge, and learn side-by-side. These experiences deepen ecological understanding, strengthen local resilience, and help individuals see themselves as co-stewards of their community’s food future.

  • Mission:
    To cultivate community power through food literacy, cooperative education, workforce development, and ecologically just food systems.

    Vision:
    A world where every community has the knowledge, tools, land access, and economic opportunity to nourish itself.

    Values:

    • Community Power

    • Collective Governance

    • Food Sovereignty

    • Ecological Justice

    • Economic Justice

    • Cultural Reverence

    • Solidarity & Collective Liberation