Our Year in Review
LANLT team reflections, memorable moments, exciting project updates, and good times from the parks and gardens
Tori Kjer
Executive Director
We stuck together this year.
This year, our community experienced devastating ICE raids and significant barriers to food access. Even in the face of unthinkable injustices, the LANLT community—including our partners, neighbors, and network of volunteers —showed up for each other. We hosted food distributions where fresh produce found its way into the hands of community members. We worked hard to maintain our parks and gardens as safe places for gathering, celebrating, creating, and enjoying nature.
In June, hundreds of us gathered to celebrate our 2025 Party for the Parks. It was a packed house at Unidad Park and Garden in Historic Filipinotown, and celebrating the collective work around greening schools in Los Angeles reminded me of the "why" that drives this work. It was amazing to honor LAUSD Board Members Rivas and Gonez, along with Principal Brad Rumble from Esperanza Elementary School.
I'm also excited to share that Wishing Tree Park in West Carson, which was once the site of toxic chemicals and the displacement of neighbors, is now serving as a community meeting hub for residents.
We are so grateful for the many partnerships, public grants, and private and individual funders who support our projects and make this meaningful work possible.
Free food distributions over the summer.
Wishing Tree Park
Adriana García
Project Manager
We removed asphalt to make way for a greener future.
In 2025, we made major progress on our green schoolyard transformation at Esperanza Elementary School in Westlake, Los Angeles.
Since the project broke ground in August 2025, incredible transformations have unfolded. So far, one acre of asphalt has removed to make way for a green oasis: a running track, flexible lawn area with stormwater treatment swales, three new outdoor classrooms, nature-based play areas, and net climbers for students looking for some outside adventure. These green amenities are nestled alongside California native planting and trees, perfect for providing shade on hot days.
Our construction project is now about halfway complete. As the new year approaches, I'm looking forward to the installation of a nature inspired playground and planting of new trees and shrubs.
Diana Campos-Jimenez
Lead Community Organizer
This year was a testament to the power of community-rooted stewardship.
Looking back, we engaged in so many wonderful community meetings in our gardens and parks. We convened, listened, and dreamed together in the very soil we protect. I felt so much energy and collective imagination at our Fremont Community Garden meetings this summer, which perfectly captured the spirit of co-creation that guides our mission.
It's been a joy to come to the garden and witness moments of quiet care: seeing members tend their plots with patience at Glazer Garden, preparing the earth for a new season of growth. These acts are the daily practice of belonging and patience.
This year, I'm also proud of how we closed old chapters to allow space for new ones to begin. When the time came to close the Vanguard Community Garden, we honored its legacy and supported its members. At West Athens Garden, with Heal Together, we held space for a healing circle, turning a closing into a conscious step toward new beginnings.
We ended the year by co-creating a sanctuary at Estrella Park, unveiling a new image of La Virgen de Guadalupe. This project was a labor of love and collaboration, a permanent affirmation that the voices and traditions of our neighbors are essential to the fabric of our shared spaces.
Garden meeting at Fremont Community Garden
Glazer Garden members
Farewell event for the Vanguard Community Garden
La Virgen de Guadalupe sanctuary
Bz Zhang
Project Manager
New beginnings at Zela Davis Park.
In June, we re-opened Zela Davis Park alongside our partner, the City of Hawthorne! From our first community meeting in 2019 to today, we worked together to renovate an existing, under-utilized 0.5-acre park into a multi-benefit, climate-resilient community space.
This project built upon extensive community engagement efforts to transform ZDP from a flat, empty grassy area with a small playground to a vibrant neighborhood park space with welcoming recreational and community amenities—including all the Zela Davis Elementary School students who chose animals and plants to highlight in the artwork!
Community members now have a healthy and safe space to play, learn, exercise, and relax in the newly re-opened park, featuring a walking path, picnic areas, native plants, bioswale, shade trees and shade structures, custom art elements, exercise equipment, a basketball half court, and a new playground that serves kids of all ages.
The reimagination of this park wouldn't be possible without the support of many funders, including the Baldwin Hills Urban Watershed Conservancy.
Julie Gonzalez
Youth and Community Programs Organizer
Growing and exploring with the Garden Apprenticeship Program (GAP).
Students from Fremont High School kicked off a new year of GAP in October. Since then, we've built new garden beds, amended the soil, planted seeds, and observed new plants sprouting.
Students have not only put their efforts toward gardening, they are also thinking about the design and implementation of sustainable innovations and ideas. Each student has been developing a unique project idea that imagines healthier futures for themselves and their communities.
Some of my favorite 2025 memories unfolded on GAP field trips. We visited the Nature Center and Aquarium and then explored the coastline afterward. Students biked through South Central and learned about the local history of farming and green space advocacy. Lastly, we had fun visiting other gardens and farms, including Black Thumb Farm, and sharing in their knowledge.
Claudia Quadrino
Program Manager
We invested in our health, together.
The fires in January left deep marks on our community and paused our programming for the first part of the year. That made one of our first events of the year—focused on health and wellbeing—all the more special.
We collaborated with Black Om, a yoga and wellness organization, to gather safely for exercising, food, and resource sharing at Avalon & Gage Park. This included a youth boxing class with Boxing Against Bullying, a yoga class with Black Om, and fresh juices, smoothies, and acai bowls provided by our partner at Straight Up Fast Food.
We also had a local plant-based chef, Chef Korby Benoit, provide homemade tea to support lung health. Considering the effects of the fires on our air quality, this tea was especially soothing. Black Women for Wellness, City First Bank, WLCAC, and Ultimate Restoration Unlimited joined us to provide community resources as well.
It was a beautiful event, and we are thankful to the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District (RPOSD) for making this day possible and for funding over 100 other events and workshops at our parks this year!
Mireya Valencia
Program Director
We bloomed together in Spring.
It might've rained during this year's Spring Festival, but that didn't stop more than 150 families from gathering at our West Athens Victory Garden in April.
The event had a little bit of everything: cooking demonstrations, native planting tips, crafts, community resources, and free food distributions thanks to the LA Food Bank. Music filled the air, and tacos and fresh fruit from local street vendors filled our stomachs.
We ended the event by handing out seedlings donated by Sylmar Agriculture and Fremont High School. While this event was a highlight of 2025, its impact will live on as those seedlings take root in gardens across LA for years to come.
Meena Haque
Development Director
I saw the human impact of this work, first-hand.
This year I joined LANLT as the Development Director. One of the highlights has been launching our new membership program as a way for individuals to partner with us in greening Los Angeles.
By making a monthly or annual commitment, members will help sustain our parks, gardens, and community programs year-round. This support also means we can plan ahead, respond to community needs, and care for these spaces long after the ribbon cuttings are over.
Over the last few months, I’ve had so much joy seeing our work in action. Watching families gather, kids play, and grandparents rest in the shade shows the impact of this work as real and deeply human. This is why I love development and fundraising; this work is about building relationships, inviting people into a shared vision, and connecting resources to communities in ways that create lasting change.
Being able to share these stories, steward supporters, and help grow the resources that bring green space to neighborhoods across Los Angeles is an honor. I wholeheartedly believe in this mission, and I am excited to welcome more members who want to help make this work come alive across the city.
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