The arrival of the 2025 spring season includes a new chapter for 2024 USGBC California Environmental Justice grant winner RootDown LA.
Thanks to the RootDown LA team and volunteers spending their Saturday mornings at the George Washington Carver Middle School Garden constructing the KitchenPOD funded by the USGBC-CA award, the culinary space built from a donated shipping container now will host cooking courses for students twice a week.
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The KitchenPOD is a shipping container, repurposed into an on-site kitchen. KitchenPOD will serve the community through culinary education, training, and nutritious garden-to-table meals 👩🌾 RootDown LA’s mission is to empower youth to succeed at health advocacy through food in South Los Angeles. (For full Instagram post, visit https://www.instagram.com/usgbcca/p/DB11TQcz40C )
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RootDown LA Executive Director Karen Ramirez, who has supported the organization’s mission for ten years, expressed her gratitude for the collective effort and USGBC California following the completion of the project, which is featured along with volunteers in the newly released USGBC-CA 2024 Impact Report.
the construction of the new KitchenPOD at George Washington Carver Middle School. (Photo: Ling Luo)
with fellow volunteers. (Photo: Ling Luo)
“The USGBC Environmental Justice Project grant supports our vision of creating safe green spaces that produce locally grown fruits and vegetables to better the quality of life of community members. With the KitchenPOD fully launched, we now have a functional culinary space to prepare meals for volunteers, host cooking workshops, and reconnect participants with the food they grow,” said Ramirez
“This setup creates an ideal Farm-to-Table pipeline that focuses on food justice and NEWtrition Education, where people of all ages can harvest fresh produce and immediately cook with it—deepening their connection to food, nutrition, and sustainability,” she added.
RootDown LA will continue to host open gardening days for volunteers who can join on the last Saturday of every month. In addition to learning from members of environmental nonprofits including TreePeople and LA Compost, volunteers have enjoyed salads or other vegetable-centric meals that represent RootDown LA’s slogan “You’re Gonna Wanna Eat Your Veggies”.
To experience the events and learn more about the project, visit these posts from USGBCCA and RootDown LA:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/usgbcca_the-rootdown-la-kitchenpod-is-finally-activity-7258199047268638720-Fmmx/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDASQbQyzll/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
USGBC-CA blog readers can follow @USGBCCA and @RootDownLA on Instagram to learn more about the KitchenPOD and future environmental justice grant opportunities.
Posted 4/9/25
About the Author
Elias Jabbe is a native of Los Angeles and alum of the 6-month USGBC California 2023 Green Building Corps training program who is now Marketing lead for the USGBC-CA Environmental Justice Project Committee after studying sustainability in global metropolitan cities including Los Angeles and Paris.
He is also a 2024-2025 UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science NSF Climate Resilience Fellow, RootDown LA Board Member, environmental writer published by the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and alum of the winter 2025 cohort of the 40-hour UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Climate Stewards course taught by the Community Environmental Council in Santa Barbara.
Biography and articles on UCLA IoES website: ioes.ucla.edu/person/elias-jabbe
Full biography on USGBC-LA website: usgbc-ca.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/14-1-768%C3%97384.png
