Flowers & Bullets

Flowers & Bullets (F&B) is a grassroots non-profit advancing environmental justice in Tucson, Arizona. F&B was formed in 2012 by two Indigenous men, Tito Romero and Jacob Robles who grew up in Barrio Centro, a neighborhood that has been disproportionately impacted by industrial and military pollution, disinvestment, and overpolicing.  Dora Martinez, an Indigenous woman, joined a year later and worked to co-found the gardening component of F&B, to get more people involved and bring healthy solutions to the community. 

Our work serves low-moderate income Latinx and Indigenous folks in this area. We empower our community to reclaim ancestral traditions to transform the legacies of environmental racism and food apartheid caused by decades of extractive economies and other forms of systemic oppression.

For years we have led environmental justice work, including installing rainwater systems and gardens, leading reentry programs for formerly incarcerated people, hosting workshops on gardening, tree-planting, passive water harvesting, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and more. Upon the community’s request to save the land from future industrial use (a truck rental company wanted to buy it), in 2023 we bought a 10-acre abandoned school and grounds in the heart of the neighborhood and are developing it into the Midtown Farm, an urban food production hub, educational space, and community center.

We are working on multiple projects aimed at transforming the abandoned Julia Keen Elementary School campus into a working farm and green space in service of the community. The Midtown Farm is a regenerative farm that includes a compost program, and we raise chickens and goats. We also host a weekly open-air market (tianguis) where local folks can sell their products, supporting cottage industry. All of our activities are aimed at providing opportunities for local folks to increase in ownership and autonomy when it comes to their food, their businesses, and their neighborhoods. 

Every Second Saturday of the month, we have workdays to build relationship with our community and the land while sharing skills. 

We would like funding to continue to realize our vision of an equitable, healthy, empowered, and engaged Barrio Centro.

Funds will go towards one or more of the following:

• Large Capacity Water Catchment System

• Tractor with attachments

• Chicken run

• General operating funds

• Staffing

Long term fundraising includes the renovation of our buildings and turning them into a multi-use space for skill sharing, business incubation, community gatherings, and a climate resilience hub.