Jovanna Lopez

Urban Agriculture Community Coordinator

Jovanna Lopez is an Urban Agriculture Community Coordinator at Eco Centro and a farmer at the Garcia Street Farm, a community farm on San Antonio’s Eastside. She has over 10 years of experience working in urban farming/gardening and community health. Jovanna is a co-founder of The People’s Nite Market, a community produce market, with EBT capabilities, providing access to affordable and fresh produce to working families. From March to October of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jovanna, Eco Centro, and The People’s Nite Market collaborated to bring together volunteers and at least 15 local community-based organizations (as well as the San Antonio Housing Authority) and distributed fresh fruit and vegetables weekly to hundreds of senior citizens, families, and undocumented immigrants across the city.  A truly community-generated effort served over 150,000 individuals through a USDA Farmers to Families grant.

Jovanna is an involved and active member in the San Antonio community with experience in community advocacy, connecting resources, civic engagement and networking between different types of people and organizations. Her passion lies in creating accessibility to affordable produce to communities experiencing food insecurity in San Antonio. At the weekly Garcia Street Urban Farm stand, Jovanna sells farm produce and collaborates with local wholesalers, (River City Produce and Big State Produce) to offer produce to the community at cost, providing SNAP/EBT machines for individuals wanting to use their benefits to feed their families.

Jovanna holds a B.S. in International Marketing and Trade and an AAS in Textile Development and Marketing, both from SUNY-Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. From Texas AgriLife Extension, she received certification as a Master Gardener and Junior Master Gardener Adult Leader.