ABOUT
We are a nonhierarchical cooperative of Asian led farms engaging our communities in building food sovereignty for the Northeast.
We build capacity for small farms through collaboration, grow our ancestral foods for community, redistribute resources to provide food to those in need,
and gather community in cultural practice.
We weave relationships between farms, community-led organizations, mutual aid groups, food purveyors, and cultural practitioners to nurture a community of interdependence and self-determination.
Amanda Wong
Organizer
Farmer co-owner of Star Route Farm
Christina Chan
Organizer
Farmer Owner of Choy Division
Kaija Xiao
Organizer
Farmer Co-owner of Gentle Time Farm
Larry Tse
Organizer
Nicole Yeo-Solano
Organizer
Salt Wang
Organizer
Farmer Co-owner of Gentle Time Farm
Our work is made possible through relationships that center community care, cultural belonging, and food justice. We are proud to be in relationship with:
ACQ BreadAchilles HeelBo Bo PoultryBong NYCHana MakgeolliHarana MarketHeart & Seoul Food Co.Ho FoodsInsaKreung CambodiaNha MinhBé BếpRomansSilver ApricotStregaThe TableWen WenYellow Rose
Thank you to our funders and supporters for sustaining and believing in our work.
2023
All In Neighborhood Grant from CitizensNYC
Asian American Impact Fund
Gold Futures Challenge
2022
All In Neighborhood Grant from CitizensNYC
2021
Young Farmers Chapter Capacity Grant
Thank you to these platforms for the opportunities to share our work.
2024
Hudson Valley CSA Summit
Boston University: Studies in Food Activism
2023
Cultivating Change with Choy Commons, MOLD
Live interview, WJFF Radio Catskill
2022
Choy Commons x YouTube: From Tech to Farming for Food Justice
Choy Commons borrows “Choy,” the romanized word for 菜, meaning leaf vegetable in Cantonese. While bok choy has origins in the Yangtze River Delta, its familiar categorization as “Asian” food parallels the perception of “Asian American” as a homogenized identity. The plant’s story captures both our dissonance with this experience and the solidarity and community we find as Asian diaspora in America.
We offer “Commons” to describe our efforts towards reciprocity with land and one another. Cultivating a shared commons of food, land, resources and labor is an act towards our collective liberation.
“菜樂市集” combines vegetables (菜), joy (樂), and market (市集). 集 also means “come together”, reminding us of our foundational history of building community through food. Thank you to Felix Wang for his thoughtful translation of our name.
Our team met through the National Young Farmers Coalition and built relationships through the Asian Farmers affinity caucus.* Our collective backgrounds include farming, education, urban planning, and design.
We share an understanding that new generations of farmers not only inherit the responsibility to feed people, but to address the challenges of climate chaos and increasing social inequities. We follow indigenous and Black leaders worldwide by prioritizing our energy towards restoring the health of our local ecology and communities.
Like many diaspora peoples, we grapple with how to preserve and adapt the traditions that allowed our East-Asian ancestors to sustain soil fertility and themselves for centuries. We center cultural traditions in our work to draw connections between heritage and the present land we live on, and instill a sense of belonging to land and one another.