Letters of Support
Reno Food Systems
Please accept this letter as enthusiastic support for Soil Solidarity. As a collaborative partner with Soil Solidarity, we believe that this project supports our community’s pathway to sustainability, democracy, and equitable access to food and housing for all.
We intend to partner with Soil Solidarity to advance the primary goals of their program of cultivating more food security, food production, and education about ways to eat healthier and build community in the Truckee Meadows.
Reno Food Systems is a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Reno, NV. We are farmers, mentors, and advocates stewarding lands and sharing food & resources for the well-being of our earth, community, and future generations. We are currently developing an urban training farm where we lease land on a park managed by Washoe County. We train young agrarians, as well as demonstrate a diversity of local food production methods including market gardening, agroforestry, and pollinator hedgerows. Our intention is to develop a living library of locally appropriate species that provides habitat and ecosystem services in addition to nourishing food for our local community.
As you can see our efforts overlap and a rising tide lifts all boats (or healthy soil supports all life!). We believe that Soil Solidarity will support pathways to providing more sustainable and meaningful ways to interact with our urban environment and foster resilience within our urban-based local food system.
- Reno Food Systems, March 2022
Northern Nevada Democratic Socialists of America
Soil Solidarity is a great contribution to our community. It is an encouraging space for people of all ages to learn and take part in sustainable food growth. They provide produce to mutual aid groups that keep people alive. Northern Nevada DSA is proud to support Soil Solidarity.
We are impressed with the environment Soil Solidarity cultivates. It is common to see young children and teenagers working alongside senior citizens, learning how to garden, and how to be responsible members of our community.
Northern Nevada DSA is a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.
-Northern Nevada Democratic Socialists of America, October 2022
Women & Children’s Center of the Sierra
In each of us is a capacity for caring. Some of us will not act on our capacity, while others will do their share. And then there are those who will maximize their capacity by taking up the cause of ending hunger and homelessness. This is what the Soil Solidarity is working to accomplish.
Katie Colling, co-founder and a major impetus in this venture, has been giving it her all on these issues for longer than I can remember. She, with her team of ready and willing volunteers, have established community gardens, composting sites, modeling personal gardening tactics, and teaching food-insecure families how to produce their own food. This goes along with the adage “if you give a person a fish, that person will be nourished for a day, if you teach a person to fish, they will be nourished for life.”
Soil Solidarity has been committed this work for much longer than the organization has been a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) entity. Current volunteers and staff have spent countless hours working with people living on the street, assisting houseless people cope and transcend life on the streets. Additionally, they worked with volunteers to teach them strategies on how to best serve houseless folks, increasing the outreach into houseless camps and people living on the streets.
I have had the privilege of working with Katie for years. Her beliefs in justice and equity are an inspiration to me. She identifies solutions and then works tirelessly, improving our community. The work of Soil Solidarity will be both boots on the ground while tackling solvable problems to eliminate houselessness.
With a long-time passion for successfully helping others and an undying commitment to improving our community, Soil Solidarity will prevail.
In peace and the utmost appreciation of Soil Solidarity,
-Pam Russell, Executive Director of Women & Children’s Center of the Sierra, October 2022
Be The Change Project
I'm writing this letter of support on behalf of Katie Colling and Soil Solidarity. I'm the founder and director of the Be the Change Project, a Reno-based nonprofit focused on community building, the environment, and service. I have known and worked with Katie for over a decade and in that time have come to appreciate and respect her work ethic and dedication, her commitment to her values, and her professionalism.In 2020 she and Soil Solidarity took over the management of a community garden in our neighborhood which we had established in 2015. Their hard work and dedication have paid off in the garden’s regular bounty and the vibrant activity of farmers and volunteers. For the past year we have collaborated on a weekly food collection and distribution effort. Its success is largely due to her communication and outreach. I'd be happy to share more through a conversation if it would be helpful. Sincerely, Kyle Isacksen
Executive Director
I found out about Soil Solidarity through Family Soup Mutual Aid. Every week, Soil Solidarity provides a ton of fresh food and groceries that we use to cook meals for our unhoused neighbors. This organization is part of a network of people in Reno who care and want to build a better world. I am proud to be a part of this coalition. I believe Soil Solidarity is helping build a better food system that supports all of us, especially the most vulnerable people in our community.We all need food. You can’t put a price tag on something that we all need—food is a human right. Soil Solidarity expands access to fresh, nourishing food at no cost. It gives the power back to the people to provide for each other, rather than relying on corrupt multi-national corporations that destroy the environment, exploit people, and devalue life on Earth.At the core of this organization is the belief that nothing and nobody is useless. Food scraps can be composted. Groceries can be recovered before they get thrown away. People can be taught to pull weeds, or plant seeds, and eventually grow something beautiful.Things can be fixed, but this is a long-term project. Soil needs to be nourished before it can grow anything, especially in Nevada. I am a fellow dreamer with a vision of a better world and I can see the work that Soil Solidarity is already doing, has been doing, and I know that they will be there when we all wake up in the new world.