Taja Sevelle,

Founder, Urban Farming

Mentee:

David S., 15, England

By the time Taja Sevelle was 15, she had lived in the city, on a farm and in a remote forest near the Canadian boarder with no running water, electricity or access by car. She had studied in her own science lab complete with microscopes, slides, protozoa and data storage, she had plowed fields, tapped maple trees, learned the Morse code, managed a health food store and become a radio DJ before her fellow classmates had graduated from high school. Her life took a twist when in the same week she was accepted into the Berklee College of Music, she was offered a record deal from Prince.

From Minneapolis to Hollywood, the first song Taja Sevelle had ever written, “Love is Contagious,” became a hit in America and Europe. Suddenly she was promoting her debut CD and rapidly becoming a well mentored songwriter for Warner/Chappell Music, writing with legends Prince, Burt Bacharach, Thom Bell and Nile Rodgers among others. She shot 6 music videos which aired on MTV, BET, VHI and several video channels overseas and has over 300 songs in her catalog. Sevelle has also invented a kitchen appliance and is partnering with Larry King of CNN and his wife Shawn King,. Taja Sevelle is also the author of a 400 page novel titled “Rain on a River”.

Taja Sevelle recorded a CD in Detroit and she began to see the amount of poverty due to job loss in the city as well as the excess amount of unused land and in 2005, she founded Urban Farming, an international 501c3 headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. The Charity plants food on unused land and space and gives it to people suffering from hunger and food insecurity. The charity began with 3 gardens in Detroit and in that year gave away 1 ton of food, partnered with the City of Detroit, Starbucks, Marygrove College and the Dorfman Family Foundation among others, and received national attention on The Montel Williams Show.

In 2006, Urban Farming became the official charity of Atlantic Records and expanded into New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Montego Bay, Jamaica. Last year, Urban Farming began in Newark, NJ, Atlanta and New Orleans and has the equivalent of 160 gardens across the country and abroad. Additionally, food is being given away under the Urban Farming mission to end hunger in Hawaii, Canada, Florida and North Carolina. Urban Farming fed over 30,000 people in 2007.

Urban Farming has been able to do a tremendous amount on a small budget which began with $7,000.00 out of Sevelle’s pocket. Taja Sevelle has managed to garner support from the music and film industry: Richard Lewis and his wife, Joyce Lapinsky/Lewis, a longtime friend of Taja’s, as well as Gary Lemel and Doug Frank of Warner Pictures are on the Board with Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records. Prince selected Urban Farming as one of the charities to benefit from partial proceeds from the sales of his new perfume, 3121.

Urban Farming is seeking support to continue expanding. The charity has created a paradigm which is being replicated in each city, feeding people and building relationships within the community that provide mentoring for youth on healthy eating, science, math, alternative energy and life skills among others, provides job training and helps to beautify the community.

“The gardens have reversed hunger in our area and they are bringing people in our Community together. People are opening their doors to each other now. The gardens are bringing health and happiness to a lot of gloom and doom around here with all the shootings and killings and we thought there wasn’t a lot of hope left but the gardens are bringing hope. People are smiling more and are happier.”