El Departamento de la Comida began in 2010 with the Cajas de Incentivo Agrícola, connecting harvests from local farmers directly with people interested in eating food grown here. Each week, we collected produce from an average of 10 farms and distributed it to approximately 150 people.

The project grew into a physical space in Trastalleres, Santurce, known as the Alma-Cén, and later moved to Punta Las Marías. There, we sold locally grown food, operated a kitchen and paladar, and served meals, juices, and coffee through a menu that changed daily.

The space also became a gathering place. We hosted hundreds of activities—from cooking classes and urban gardening workshops to live performances by local musicians—building a community that eventually reached far beyond Puerto Rico.

After Hurricanes Irma and María, our restaurant and store were destroyed. Faced with the devastation of Puerto Rico’s food system, we shifted our work toward rebuilding from the ground up, alongside our farmer comrades.

During this period, we coordinated solidarity brigades for more than 60 agricultural projects, mobilized hundreds of volunteers, and raised more than $200,000 in relief funds to support agricultural recovery.

After traveling throughout Puerto Rico and learning firsthand about the needs of farmers and agricultural projects, we began asking what El Depa needed to become in this new chapter.

We reorganized as a nonprofit organization dedicated to food sovereignty. From there, we began developing programs and community infrastructure that could offer alternatives to institutional and bureaucratic systems that have historically left many agricultural projects behind.

This is how the Agroteca and Kitchen emerged, initially operating from a borrowed space in Santurce and through satellite events and projects.

In 2020, we arrived in Barrio San Salvador in Caguas, where we established our current home. From here, we have developed our Food Oasis model: community infrastructure connecting agriculture, food, education, culture, and territory.

This ecosystem includes the Agroteca, Kitchen, Nursery, Tala Experimental, Proyecto Ceiba, Abono, events, workshops, and other initiatives that continue to evolve in response to the needs of our community.

Barrio San Salvador sits within a unique territory: tributaries that feed two major watersheds—the Río Grande de Loíza and Turabo—begin here. Understanding where we are also shapes how we work. We see ourselves as stewards of these ecosystems that sustain life and food in Puerto Rico.

From this perspective, we support agroforestry and regenerative practices while creating alternatives to conventional agricultural models, including community access to tools, seeds, and knowledge through the Agroteca.

This broader understanding of agriculture also gave rise to Proyecto Ceiba, a pilot program that pays young people to work and learn alongside farmers, seed keepers, artisans, and guardians of ancestral knowledge.

Proyecto Ceiba recognizes that the knowledge carried by our campesinado across generations is an essential part of the infrastructure that makes food sovereignty possible.

Through this model, we strengthen the relationships between community, land, food, and knowledge, understanding that regenerating our ecosystems also means caring for the people, practices, and knowledge that have sustained them for generations.