Get to Know: Jacob Payne, Board President

Our Board President, Jacob Payne, recently applied for a grant where he talked about his passion for working with Plants 4 the People. Read below to learn more about Jacob Payne:

Question: How are you making a sustainable difference in your community by taking action for the planet?

Jacob: Last year, I co-founded Plants 4 the People, a nonprofit organization founded on the idea that food has the power to heal, educate, and bring us together. Our mission is to promote sustainability through our community by teaching members how to grow their own food in the spaces they have available. I am leading a team that is working with Sandburg Middle School, a Title One school, to develop a farm-to-school and community garden program. I am looking to develop programs within the scope of the garden, such as teaching members how to recycle and how to compost, two things that will make a significant impact on our community’s carbon footprint.

Question: What inspired you to dedicate your time to making your community more sustainable?

Jacob: As we have all seen, community relations have been on the decline all over the country, but I have especially felt it in my community. Last year, one of my good friends brought to me the idea to make a community garden. I was not a big garden person, but then I remembered something that happened to me as a child. When I attended Sandburg Middle School, one of my teacher’s homes burned down during a wildfire, an increasingly common occurrence in my community due to climate change. I wanted to do something for her, not only because she was my teacher, but because she meant a lot to the community. I had the idea to raise money for her family to rebuild their house; I got a small group together and we ended up raising around $3,000 to help the family. Through our talks, my friend's idea turned from one community garden to creating a nonprofit that brought together my passion for strengthening community ties and making the community more sustainable.

Question: What does commitment to community mean to you?

Jacob: My father is a part of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and I have witnessed, first hand, the decline in community relations and distrust among citizens. My commitment to my community means creating a space where trust and compassion are at the forefront. My goal in working with Plants 4 the People is to create a space where members of different backgrounds within the community, such as law enforcement, minorities, people who identify as LGBTQ+ and people from all walks of life, can come together solely as community members. I dream of making a space where we can come together and share stories about our backgrounds, we can all have a better understanding of each other, and we can build each other up instead of tearing each other down. Being able to strengthen the ties between the general public and law enforcement has been one of my greatest hopes, because I do not want my niece growing up in a world where she has to hide the fact that her grandfather is a sheriff.