We are three old friends who met in 7th grade at Marlborough School.   We are Los Angeles natives who like to imagine how much food could be grown in our city if we replaced lawns with gardens, and how that would positively affect the lives of so many people.

Kathleen Redmond has always been a gardening enthusiast despite growing up with a hopelessly shady backyard. Once in the sunlight, she got to work learning about environmental education and sustainable agriculture as part of her Environmental Studies degree at Oberlin College. She is a big proponent of garden education for children, and works part time at the Children’s Community School in Van Nuys. If she were a vegetable she would be a sugar snap pea.

Sara Carnochan caught the gardening bug when Heart Beet started in 2006. She has since let that passion grow, learning more about plants and food, and studying permaculture design. Her background is in literature—studying Creative Writing and Spanish at Bard College—and education—working as an assistant teacher at New Roads Elementary School. She is an ardent sheet mulching enthusiast, and if she were a vegetable she would be an eggplant.

Megan Bomba grew up planting the backyard vegetable garden every year with her father, and is a long-time believer in the potential of urban agriculture in L.A. She is a graduate of Oberlin College where she majored in Environmental Studies, and has since complemented her education with work on organic farms and studies of permaculture design. After steering Heart Beet through its infancy, she is now studying International Agricultural Development at UC Davis, focusing on community nutrition through garden food production. If she were a vegetable she would be a fava bean.