ASHA GRAVES

Asha Graves is a Los Angeles–raised housing case manager, shared housing operator, entrepreneur, and founder of Deeply Rooted Initiative (DRI), a community-based network that reconnects people to food, culture, and sustainability through gardens grown in spaces of any size. Grounded in ancestral knowledge and community sweat equity, her work mobilizes volunteerism and the wisdom within communities to strengthen communal bonds, expand access to food, and cultivate pride, identity, and global awareness.

Project: Deeply Rooted Initiative

Deeply Rooted Initiative’s mission is to cultivate sustainable communities by helping individuals and families utilize the resources, knowledge, and spaces already within their reach to grow food, reconnect with ancestral wisdom, and strengthen communal bonds through collective effort. Through gardening in the ground and vertical planters and diaspora tasting tables, we invite participants to explore culture, food traditions, and sustainability while building pride, identity, and shared access to nourishment.