Kula Nursery is a grassroots urban nursery working within and for BIPOC communities to increase food sovereignty through garden education and culturally relevant plant starts. The mission at Kula Nursery is to reconnect the diaspora with heritage food, strengthen food sovereignty among BIPOC communities, and promote cultural and biological diversity. Since 2020, we have been deeply rooted within the South Asian community in the greater San Francisco Bay Area to understand their food preferences and determine what culturally important foods are missing from the local food system. Through countless interactions with community members at farmers markets, we are slowly inching our way towards identifing the specific foods that are greatly desired for culinary, medicinal and spiritual purposes.

Zee Lilani is the founder of Kula Nursery. She received her Masters at UC Davis in International Agricultural Development and has since shifted her focus to strengthening the local food system through grassroots initiatives and community building. Zee’s mother and grandmother, who migrated to Pakistan from India during the partition, taught her about the importance of preserving their cultural identity through the preparation of traditional
South Asian meals.

Located in West Oakland, CA on unceded Ohlone Land.