About our Nonprofit

We are Homegrown Foods, also doing business as Permascaping and Fertile Grounds.
Our mission is to build food-secure, water-wise, waste-free, self-sufficient communities.

Meet the Dream Team

Homegrown/Permascaping is more than a nonprofit — we are a highly efficient cooperative of specialized solo business owners and subject matter experts coming together to build a shared vision:

A world of abundance for all, regenerative to Mother Nature.

  • Jérémy Chevallier wearing a straw hat and bandana, smiling outdoors at the Salt River near Phoenix Arizona

    Jérémy Chevallier

    Board President & Permaculture Designer

    Founder, Homegrown Foods, Permascaping, & Fertile Grounds

  • Smiling woman wearing a bright yellow vest with "She Runs Curves" design, backpack, outdoor setting.

    Tatiana Conta

    Land Operations Manager

    Co-Manager, Fertile Grounds

  • Clint Culberson teaching elementary school kids about gardening and permaculture

    Clint Culberson

    Permaculture Designer & Crew Foreman

    Founder, Galaxy Gardens

  • Person holding a long piece of seamless gutter in a garden, wearing a tool belt and ripped jeans, near a glass window.

    Evan Duteau

    Active Rainwater Systems Specialist
    Advisor

    Cofounder, Galaxy Gardens

  • Person operating a small loader moving dirt at a construction site

    Machine Mike™ Campbell

    Crew Foreman & Heavy Equipment Operator

    Founder, Guru Services

  • Jared Portugal

    Arborist
    Founder, Tree Guardians AZ

  • Christopher Macy

    Founder & Program Manager
    Phoenix Food Forest Initiative

  • Cactus Kelly in kitchen demonstrating Sonoran Desert foods with famous chef

    Cactus Kelly

    Sonoran Desert Foods Director
    Founder, CactusKelly.com

  • Russell Brewer with bucket of compost in front of Green Thumbs banner at Early Bird Vegan restaurant in Phoenix

    Russell Brewer

    Board Secretary & Soil Scientist

    Founder, Growers Best Organics & Green Thumbs Recycling

  • Person taking a selfie in a rocky desert landscape with a cloudy blue sky.

    Adam French

    Board Treasurer & Regenerative Designer
    Founder, Interform

  • Person wearing a hat and sunglasses tying a young tree with wire outdoors.

    Izzy Beas

    Fruit Tree Specialist & Crew Member

  • Woman sitting on a red outdoor chair holding several chicks in her arms, wearing a blue shirt and sunglasses, with grass visible in the background.

    Sandra Coveny

    Grant Strategist

The Problems We’ve Teamed Up to Solve

1

Instability across the global commercial food system is increasing food prices and food insecurity for billions of people everywhere.

2

Profit-focused producers compromise on freshness, nutritional value, and long-term safety of food.

3

Unsustainable agricultural practices and urban overdevelopment continue to wreak havoc on Earth’s biological systems and human wellbeing.

People are now boycotting industry leaders and switching to alternative solutions, especially locally owned and produced food.

Gardening has also seen a major resurgence:

However, gardening is a time-consuming hobby with a steep learning curve and which can have significant up-front costs (see: The $64 Tomato), which makes it inaccessible to most people already struggling to keep up with expenses in an inflation-heavy world.

Several startups have attempted to capitalize on this, including Seedsheets, Gardyn, and Neverland, as well as countless local done-for-you gardening services like Niche Organic Gardens. We support all who seek to increase soil health and community resilience.

Whether DIY or managed, traditional gardening takes too many resources to feasibly feed millions of people, but the land is available and underutilized.

Enter our solution:

Distributed, Subsidized
Urban Permaculture

Urban permaculture can feasibly replace widespread reliance on commercially grown food thanks to these advantages:

1

An established permaculture zone produces abundantly and regeneratively, meaning no additional resource inputs are required (other than occasional human maintenance)

2

Local & communal ownership of resources creates true impact at the ground level, without hoping for “trickle down” effects or tourism to bring money into the community

Permascaping is…

1

Designing and dominating a new category: Permaculture Landscaping, the future of the $176 billion U.S. landscaping industry (IBISWorld)…

2

…by building and maintaining locally owned permaculture food forests disguised as landscaping…

3

…in order to reestablish local food security, community resilience, mental health, and ecological balance in urban and suburban areas.

Our principles are:

observe • go slow • design • integrate • harvest • iterate • renew

By the way:

We particularly love flood-irrigated land, which is best positioned to produce an abundance of local homegrown food.

A bonus in the desert:

Flood Irrigation

Cities like Phoenix, AZ have thousands of acres of urban land irrigated by flood irrigation, infrastructure intended for traditional agriculture.

This irrigation is lake water, packed with natural fertilizer in the form of wildlife excretion and decay. It’s also 10x cheaper than city water, which is treated with chemicals.

Satellite view of a city with an airport and mountains, likely Phoenix, Arizona.
Aerial view of a residential neighborhood with grid-like streets, numerous houses, green spaces, and a few larger buildings.

Can you tell where the flood irrigated neighborhoods are?

How about now?

Aerial view of a suburban neighborhood with houses, pools, lawns, and trees.

The contrast—and privilege—becomes more stark the closer we get.

For these reasons, flood-irrigated properties have an unfair advantage for growing in the desert southwest.

However, most irrigated properties are not operating nearly at their full production potential, missing out on all the benefits of permaculture.

What’s more, public and private irrigation services currently operate at a deficit, and are trying to either increase service costs, or phase out their services, leaving residents high and dry.

These are the opportunities Permascaping seeks to capitalize on, for the purpose of transforming Phoenix (and cities like it) into resilient, regenerative, locally owned food systems.

Aerial view of two adjacent residential areas separated by a street. Text overlay indicates 'Grow Food Here' on the left and 'Distribute Surplus Here' on the right, with a green arrow pointing from left to right.

Mentors & Advisors