Farmer, Organizer and Educator
Jalal was raised in Greenburgh, New York, by his mother and grandmother, and studied at Woodlands High School and SUNY Purchase. He organized his fellow university students to bring uneaten food to local shelters and food pantries; organized trips to distribute clothes and food to the homeless in NYC; and led the Black Student Union to address numerous racist incidents on campus.
As an organizer with WESPAC Foundation and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), Jalal helped initiate food justice committees within both organizations. As part of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Jalal co-created Potential 2 Power Project in East New York, Brooklyn, which taught young people gardening, cooking and nutrition skills, as well as ‘know your rights’ during police encounters.
In 2011, Jalal began farming with Wassaic Community Farm – growing produce for farmers markets while running a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and gleaning project. Jalal co-founded the Freedom Food Alliance, VROOM Cooperative and Victory Bus Project. The Freedom Food Alliance is a collective of small rural and urban farmers, activists, artists, community folks and political prisoners who use food as an organizing tool. The Alliance founded the VROOM Cooperative and Victory Bus Project to connect urban and rural communities and to support families of prisoners by providing transportation (along with a box of farm-fresh food) for folks visiting prisoners in the Hudson Valley. Jalal is currently continuing the work of the Alliance, while also launching Sweet Freedom Farm in Germantown, NY, where he conducts farm education, a maple syrup operation, and helps to build the Farms Not Prisons movement.