Fatima at the Suga’ Cane Community Hub
Cultivate is a Foundation program that aims to nourish connection and collaboration among leaders of color at local nonprofits and close pervasive fundraising gaps that affect them, their organizations, and the communities they serve.
This year, longtime nonprofit fundraiser, Big Day of Giving Mentor, and Cultivate facilitator Marisa DeSalles is providing personalized coaching for a group of eight nonprofit leaders. One of those leaders is Fatima Malik, Founder and Executive Director of the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance (DPHGA).
I’ve connected with Fatima many times over the years. The first time we met in 2022, I was interviewing grantees of the Foundation’s Neighborhood Fund, and Fatima and I immediately hit it off. It’s incredible to see how much Fatima’s leadership has helped the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance grow. We took some time to talk about DPHGA’s work and Fatima’s experience with this year’s Cultivate cohort.
Setting the Table to Cultivate
Fatima has been a part of the Cultivate program since 2024, when it grew to over 60 nonprofit leaders that gathered for supportive training sessions. Through coaching, Cultivate has helped Fatima build a network, increase capacity, and understand how to better lead DPHGA. “I’m really thankful for Cultivate, because there’s no other space like it,” Fatima shared. “It’s a safe space to learn from my peers without being afraid to be inexperienced, or to ask a dumb question.”
Support comes from both Marisa’s leadership and the relationships cohort members build together. “We have an amazing coach in Marisa; she really knows how to set the table and provide a safe environment for us to connect,” Fatima continued. “Learning and hearing from my peers has been so supportive and encouraging. Sometimes I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall, but being part of Cultivate gives me the motivation to keep going.”
Turn the Soil, Learn a Skill
The Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance is a dedicated coalition on the front lines working against a broken, expensive, and unhealthy food system. “Our mission goes beyond addressing hunger and malnutrition; we aim to transform our community’s relationship with food and the environment,” DPHGA shares on its GivingEdge profile. “Through regenerative agriculture and ecosystem stewardship, we’re not just planting seeds in the ground – we’re sowing the seeds of change for healthier environments and healthier lives.”
The Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance’s various programs and services include:
- Root Cellar Garden Community Composting, established in 2024. In partnership with ReSoil Sacramento, DPHGA teaches community members about composting and how to start and maintain a composting heap at home.
- The True Beginnings Community Orchard, home to 48 fruit trees. Supported by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, DPHGA uses this program to teach community members how to plant, grow, and maintain trees. This year, they hope to start an “adopt a tree” program.
- The Free Farm Stand, through which DPHGA purchased 60 bags of produce from local farmers of color and distributed them to families in need, many of whom were immigrants and refugees. It launched as an eight-week program in 2023 and extended to 16 weeks in 2024, and they hope to expand it again through support from Big Day of Giving.
- The Suga’ Cane Community Hub, in partnership with UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute and Valley Vision. Building this greenhouse at the Suga’ Cane Community Garden has provided the community firsthand experience in basic construction.
Additionally, the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance holds monthly “turn and learn” volunteer events (“turn the soil, learn a new skill”), provides ecological services to vulnerable populations, and collaborates on the International Garden of Many Colors.
Community members at the Suga’ Cane Community Hub
Building What We Deserve
Fatima was inspired to create the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance after witnessing the effects that diet-related diseases had on family members. “My grandma and dad were diagnosed with diabetes,” Fatima shared. “I saw health issues in my family and my communities. In the South Asian community, there’s a high rate of heart disease and fatty liver disease. Locally, there’s a high rate of obesity, diabetes and other chronic conditions.”
When Fatima started working at Grant High School, something clicked. “I was part of its community garden program as a student, and it changed the trajectory of my life,” Fatima said. “One of my first jobs out of college was teaching in that same community garden. We would tell people to eat their fruits and vegetables, but my neighborhood didn’t have a major grocery store, and the stores we had didn’t have fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Local data shows that this issue is widespread in local neighborhoods. According to the City of Sacramento’s Environmental Justice Factbook: Access to Healthy Food, “food access disparities exist across neighborhoods: several areas, especially in North Sacramento, Arden Arcade, and South Area, are classified as being low-income neighborhoods where over 33 percent of the population lives more than a mile from the nearest large grocery store.”
“After a while, I realized that I didn’t want to be a product of an unhealthy environment — I wanted to build the healthy environment that we deserved.” Because of the lack of fresh food in communities like Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento, Fatima decided to change the health outcomes among vulnerable populations by teaching people how to grow, harvest, prepare, and process fresh food through the Del Paso Heights Growers’ Alliance.
DPHGA has opened doors and provided firsts for many members of the community. An intern shared that she had never planted a tree before and has since planted three in the past month. The Free Farm Stand introduced families to produce they’d never had before, like the jujube and the heirloom tomato. Fatima’s favorite part of leading DPHGA is cultivating food, joy, and inspiration. “I love when the participants have an ‘Aha!’ moment. A mission accomplished is when someone has an experience they’ve never had before, or got an opportunity that otherwise wasn’t available to them.”