Adam Forbes

Adam is a farmer and educator from Philadelphia. For the past 10 years Adam has been working to support diverse communities to grow cultural crops. For Truelove Seeds, Adam is growing crops from the village in Greece that his grandparents and ancestors come from. The seeds are grown in Philadelphia with no chemical or sprays. Adam is culturally Greek and has travelled to the village of Elinitsa to learn about his family's heritage and history. Adam became passionate about seed saving in college and after graduating Adam was awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. The Fellowship allowed Adam to spend over a year traveling in India, Peru, Ethiopia, Thailand, Italy, and Greece studying seed saving and biodiversity in food crops.

Adam started the thriving "Growing Home Gardens" in South Philly. The gardens are in their 9th successful season, with over 95 refugee and immigrant families gardening. He also started Novick Urban Farm and ran the farm for more than 3 years. In both of these projects, Adam worked to source cultural crops that refugee communities from Burma, Nepal, and Congo were looking for.

Adam has also focused on education and taught at schools throughout South Philly. He managed after school programs for over 150 youth through the PA Migrant Education Program while leading community classes for adults and children. He developed youth leaderships programs, oversaw college applications, and led outdoor adventure programs for refugee and immigrant youth. Currently, Adam is teaching ESOL at Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia. He is continuing to volunteer leading youth programs in the community and working to grow cultural crops in any space possible. Adam is working to start his own non-profit and connect more youth to nature.