![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chacko_Grow2zero_1-12.jpg\")
Lee Zeldin, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), walks around GrowZero Farms as he\u2019s given a tour of the area and learns more about the farm on June 24, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\nLeif Kemp and Judi Gregory, co-founders of Long Beach\u2019s Grow2Zero Farms, hosted an unexpected tour for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[I was] kind of shocked and surprised and stunned and excited,\u201d Gregory said, describing receiving an email that the federal administrator wanted to visit their site. \u201cWhen you do this work, you just kind of do it behind the curtain. To have him show up to our little farm and our little organization really means a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zeldin also spoke with local media after the tour, alongside Kemp and Gregory.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombatting food waste is important to us here at the EPA and Grow2Zero\u2019s work is really something I think should be a story told all across this country [and] should inspire others,\u201d Zeldin said, adding that he\u2019s never visited an operation like Ground2Zero in his nine and a half months as EPA administrator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee Zeldin, the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), walks around GrowZero Farms as he\u2019s given a tour of the area and learns more about the farm on June 24, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n
The site, once an abandoned parking lot often riddled with litter, has turned into a source of extraordinary pride that feeds thousands each year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust think across the country, how many other blighted, smaller properties that are only one acre?\u201d Zeldin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another Long Beach nonprofit, Long Beach Fresh<\/a>, helped Kemp and Gregory transform the location through the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program<\/a> close to a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe owner [of the then old parking lot] constantly [was] getting violation notices \u2026 he looked and said, \u2018Well, my mom loves gardening, maybe somebody will want to come and grow something here and I don\u2019t have to pay fines from the city,\u2019\u201d Gregory said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The co-founders, Gregory and Kemp, both went to the same high school and are veterans. The nonprofit benefits them in different ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kemp was in the Army and he used the farm to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got involved with growing food to address some of the issues that I was dealing with internally due to my time in combat,\u201d Kemp said in the press conference. \u201cI noticed real quickly the benefits of having my hands in the soil and I wanted to figure out a way to use veterans to heal communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory began dumpster diving in the first grade and said her whole world was about keeping stuff out of a landfill, recycling and reusing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The idea for Grow2Zero started after Gregory watched a video of Kemp 10 years ago on how he was using farming to help rehabilitate veterans with PTSD. She said to Kemp that while she didn\u2019t know anything about farming, she knew that there was a lot of food waste which could be composted and used to grow crops in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe next thing you know, we\u2019re planting a farm,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n But creating that farm wasn\u2019t that easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was literally one bed, one row at a time,\u201d she said.. \u201cA lot of long weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit farm gives about 140 bags of fresh produce to residents per week. About 80 of those bags are distributed in person at their Everyone Eats event on Wednesdays from 4 to 4:30 p.m., which is located in the alleyway on the corner of Colombia and Santa Fe. On Thursdays, they do home delivery to Century Villages at Cabrillo, mostly to veterans with their families and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people come up to get the food \u2026 it just really is impactful because people come up and say, \u2018Thank you for what you\u2019re doing. You\u2019ve helped [me and] my family,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cNo job or no anything can replace helping someone in need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Grow2Zero has received multiple grants to the tune of $600,000-$700,000 a year to give food away and educate the community on farming<\/a>. However, both grants expired this year and now they only have one grant that\u2019s close to $250,000 a year.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things as a nonprofit, there\u2019s never enough money. It\u2019s always, \u2018How are we gonna pay our bills?\u2019 What are we gonna do when this grant runs out,\u2019\u201d Gregory said, mentioning the nonprofit received initial funding from the EPA during COVID.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do is supplement with some community service work, but grant funding, community funding [is] critical,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To learn more about Ground2Zero Farms, follow them on Instagram<\/a> and to donate, check out their website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chacko_Grow2zero_1-13.jpg\")
Farm manager and co-founder of Grow2Zero, Leif Kemp, brings out a crate of produce after talking with the media about Grow2Zero on June 24, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Chacko_Grow2zero_1-18.jpg\")
Estefany Rodriguez, a farm worker for Grow2Zero, takes apples and other produce and fills it up in a box and crate on June 24, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)<\/p>\n
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