Progress 07/01/08 to 06/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The no-cost extension allowed CASFS to complete ongoing projects. CASFS did research and documentation on community needs and an advisory committee was formed. Staff developed a survey and conducted telephone interviews with local and regionally based non-profit organizations who serve a diverse groups of citizen and under-served communities to assess community engaged research needs in order to develop a community based research initiative. A the advisory committee helped to develop a process and vision for a community of practice. CASFS graduate student, Linda Wallace, completed 55 interviews with dining service managers and a few executive chefs in the U.S.: 17 in the West, 18 in the East, 10 in the South, and 10 in the Midwest. Interviews were completed with two food service management companies (Bon Appetit and Parkhurst), one distributor (Duck Delivery Portland), and one sustainable food certifier (the Food Alliance). Over the course of 2008-2010, CASFS advised the UCSC and the UC wide Food Systems Working Group and sustainable food service policy process. CASFS helped initiate the first west coast domestic fair trade model for the Central Coast and the development of national metrics on farm-to-college sustainability measures of food procurement and how to measure the carbon footprint and social responsibility with the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education and the Real Food Challenge; the National Good Food Network CA Regional lead team; and the Santa Cruz County Food Forum Event. Between 2008 and 2009, CASFS staff presented in more than 16 college classes teaching agrifood literacy; CASFS sponsored five agrifood seminars; and CASFS staff participated and presented at seven conferences around the areas of farm-to-fork, and specifically farm-to-college and around social justice, fair trade and consumer awareness. Patricia Allen led an effort by a Land Grant University research consortium in food systems and public health, NC1033, to create an edited book on food systems and public health. Nineteen authors agreed to write 15 chapters and Allen created a book prospectus which was marketed to Springer Publishing and others. Eight Sustainable Agrifood Systems Interns applied to the program and were chosen with the goal to increase undergraduate applied research and education on campus and regional food systems. They were successful in creating innovative ways to bring more awareness on their campuses around regional food systems and agrifood system sustainability and to increase agrifood literacy at their institutions. PARTICIPANTS: PARTICIPANTS: Patricia Allen was P.I. and designed and implemented the project. Jonathon Landeck supervised the project and the SASI program. Jan Perez designed, implemented and analyzed evaluations of education efforts, developed the community assessment project, assisted with development of education activities. Tim Galarneau designed, coordinated and supervised the SASI program and interns, provided advice on farm to institution developments, presented at classes, engaged in regional agrifood system partnership projects, did facilitation and organizational trainings for students and youth, oversaw the development of the Campus Food Guide, and facilitated agrifood system education events on campus and in the community. Gwendolyn Keith organized agrifood seminars, coordinated the Food and Public Health book and USDA meetings. Rebecca Thistlewaite assessed how CASFS's programs can be more relevant and accessible for currently underserved people, also conducted a regional needs assessment of organizations/stakeholders in order to develop a research consortium. Valerie Kuletz inventoried existing education programs at other colleges, universities and NGO's, and publications related to social justice and transformation of the agrifood system and potential research partners. Liz Milazzo, assisted with the Harvest for Health classes and the ES133 courses on the farm. Martha Brown edited the Campus Food Guides and documents; promoted agrifood seminar and other events and developed content for the website. Hilary Melcarek and Rachel Brand worked as Graduate Student Researchers. Whitney Bell, Jack Buchannan, Fortino Morales III, Damian Parr, Megan Carney, Sandeep Kaur Dhaliwal, Maggie Lickter, Kelsey Meagher, and Hai Hoang Vo were SAS Interns. Collaborators: UCSC Faculty, Staff and Orgs: Professors Ron Glass, George Brown, Melanie Dupuis, Julie Guthman, Bill Friedland, Melissa Caldwell, and Flora Lu, Provost Juan Poblete, Linda Wallace, Katie Monson, UCSC Dining Services, Sustainable Food Systems Working Group, Education for Sustainable Living Program. NC1033 Food & Health group. Cabrillo Community College, UC campuses at: Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Davis, & San Diego. California Food & Justice Coalition; Roots of Change, Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Community Agroecology Network. Trainings: SASI did trainings on facilitation, negotiating, conflict resolution, research design and reporting and held weekly conference calls and web-based collaboration. The Field to Fork workshop provided guidance for regional sustainable food sourcing from small and mid-scale farmers. CASFS facilitated a statewide undergrad conference at UC Santa Cruz on injustice in the food system. CASFS supervised and advised undergrad interns developing the Campus Food Guide, as well as an intern researching social justice in farm to college. CASFS held OPERS staff & faculty Food for Thought Trainings on food systems, and College 8 Campus Food Systems student workshops. CASFS held trainings for youth on stakeholder engagement at Kellogg's Food and Society Conference. TARGET AUDIENCES: Undergraduate students, graduate students, university and community college faculty, food service staff and directors, community members, non-profits working in food system issues, farmers, farm workers. Research on how well CASFS programs serve and provide relevancy to underserved audiences is specifically designed to look at any of the disadvantaged audiences listed above. The organizational needs assessment & development of a research collaborative/consortium is making an effort to include a diversity of stakeholders and to gather feedback from organizations that work with disadvantaged populations. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Patricia Allen was invited to write chapters in three edited volumes for academic and public audiences contributing to agrifood literacy with multiple audiences. Topics identified by the community needs assessment survey were written into a 2009-2010 USDA Special Research Grant proposal. Preliminary results from the farm to institution telephone interviews show that less than 5% of the Farm to College programs have developed criteria to determine whether participating farms provide safe and fair working conditions for workers. Less than 5% verify whether farms meet criteria for safe and fair working conditions. The majority of programs claimed to source some local organic or sustainably produced food. This information is continuing to inform CASFS activities around farm to institution which have been written into a 2009-2010 USDA Special Research Grant proposal. The Sustainable Food Systems Internship program (SASI) is a successful model of educating, leadership building and very effective in empowering students in collaboration with faculty and campus food services to create changes on multiple campuses in California. Successes include: The creation of student gardens and hands-on learning sites at UC Riverside and UC San Diego. Setting the groundwork for learning and action at Cabrillo Community College on increasing sustainable food service practices on campus and create new sourcing relationships with local producers. A campus food concept map and procurement assessment was created at UC Santa Barbara. UC Irvine formed a UCI Sustainable Food Systems Working Group on campus in addition to designing and implementing a set of 8 food systems-based educational "real food" roundtable events with participation by over 500 campus and community members. UC San Diego interns implemented a food service student interest survey. UC Davis interns developed two undergraduate courses in Sustainable Agriculture and in Food Systems. Two years of interns are developing ways to collaboratively improve and share the coursework with the whole UC system and nationwide. Assessments by CASFS staff showed that UCSC courses were highly successful in increasing agrifood system literacy. The undergraduate class, Harvest for Health, which gave students an experience of harvesting on the UCSC farm and learning about food systems was rated well. For over three quarters of the students it was their first time harvesting food. Most students mentioned a greater appreciation of farmers and farm workers, organic and local foods. It was helpful to students in understanding both theory and application of sustainable food practices and healthy foods. CASFS has created new undergraduate curriculum and introduced more courses at UCSC implemented by a new UDSA special research grant for 2009-2010. The ES 133 course for undergraduates successfully served students from UCSC, other campuses and community members. Agrifood seminars engaged a broader audience than just students and faculty, attracting community members. The NC1033 book on food systems and public health was reworked into a proposal for a special journal issue.
Publications
- Allen, P. and H. Melcarek. 2009. Organic Agriculture and Food Security: Saving the Environment, Feeding the World In Organic Farming: The Ecological System. C. Francis, ed. Madison, WI: American Society of Agronomy. Invited chapter.
- Allen, P. 2009. Roots and Roles of Alternative Agrifood Systems. In Critical Food Issues: Problems and State-of-the-Art Solutions Worldwide: Society, Culture and Ethics, vol. 2. L. Walter, ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Invited chapter.
- Allen, P. 2008. Sustainable Agriculture Movement. In the Encyclopedia of Rural America: The Land and People, vol. 2:N-Z. G. Gorham, ed. Millerton, NY: Grey House Publishing. Invited chapter.
- Allen, P. and A. B. Wilson. 2008. Agrifood Inequalities: Globalization and Localization. Special issue: The Future of Agriculture, Development 51 (4): 534 to 540.
- Howard, P. and P. Allen. 2008. Consumer Willingness to Pay for Domestic 'Fair Trade': Evidence from the United States. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 23 (3): 235 to 242.
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Progress 07/01/08 to 06/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Agrifood Seminars featured: Dara Goldstein, Editor of Gastronomica and Prof. at William's College, 2/4/09; Vandana Shiva, 3/6/09; Bill Friedland, UCSC 3/12/09; Eric Holt-Gimenez, Exec. Dir. of Food First, 3/18/09; Agriculture Justice Project (AJP), Elizabeth Henderson and Marty Mesh, CATA's Exec. Dir., Nelson Carrasquillo 6/3/09. Visiting scholar: Deborah Barndt, Prof. of Environmental Studies, York University. CASFS co-sponsored: Strengthening Roots: Food, Justice & Fair Trade Convergence, UCSC, 2/13-15/09; Vandana Shiva, 3/6/09 UCSC Lecture. Field to Fork, UCSC - Local food sourcing workshop for farmers and institutional food directors and buyers, 6/2/09; Food for Thought at CASFS Strawberry Festival on migrant labor with Latino Environmental Justice class, 5/20/09. Services: CASFS advised the UCSC and the UC wide Food Systems Working Group and sustainable food service policy process. CASFS helped initiate the first west coast domestic fair trade model for the Central Coast and the development of national metrics on farm to college with AASHE & the Real Food Challenge; the National Good Food Network CA Regional lead team; and the Santa Cruz County Food Forum Event. Conferences & Presentations: Patricia Allen co-chaired the NC1033 Annual Meeting, Austin, TX 11/13-14/08; helped design and attended the First National Symposium on Food Systems & Sustainability, 3/24-26/09, Davis, CA; and attended Agriculture Food and Human Values, Penn State, 5/28-31/08. CASFS helped organize and presented at the Higher Ed. Sustainability Conference at UC Santa Barbara, 2/5-7/09. CASFS also presented on "Food System Metrics and Sourcing Real Food in our Institutions at the Community Food Security College Farm to School Conference, Portland, OR, 3/18-21/09; Kellogg's Good Food Conference, San Jose, 4/21-23/09; CASFS courses: Harvest for Health, College 8 undergrad core course. ES133-practicum in organic farming. Exploring the Hidden Connections: Health, Wellness & Sustainable Food Systems, Office of Physical Education, Recreation & Sports (OPERS). CASFS presented at College Classes: 12/1/08. UCSC EE80S: Student Empowerment and Food Systems Based Change; 2/11/09. UCSC College 9 International & Global Perspectives CLNI 85; Food, Justice, and Students: Allies and Innovators on the Road to Sustainability; 3/10/09. UCSC Biology 80N; Food Systems: Steps to an Ecology of Health and Well Being 5/7/09. UCSC Community Studies 105, The Movement for Sustainable Campus Food Systems: Student Engagement & Learning; 5/19/09; Environmental Justice-Latino Studies talks by CASFS staff and others, strawberry harvesting. CA State U, Monterey Bay on Agri-Food System literacy - local & global; 11/6/08. EE80S at UCSC on Sustainability & Agrifood Systems, 11/10/08. Cabrillo College Food and Culture, Student Empowerment & Developments toward Sustainable Campus Food Systems. Other: A survey on social justice and underserved communities and focus groups on CASFS programs were implemented. The framework, abstracts for chapters and a prospectus for the Food and Public Health Handbook with the USDA NC1033 group are developed. A telephone survey of Farm-to-Institution projects is underway. PARTICIPANTS: Patricia Allen was P.I. and designed and implemented the project. Jonathon Landeck supervised the project and the SASI program. Jan Perez designed, implemented and analyzed evaluations of education efforts, developed the community assessment project, assisted with development of education activities. Tim Galarneau designed, coordinated and supervised the SASI program and interns, provided advice on farm to institution developments, presented at classes, engaged in regional agrifood system partnership projects, did facilitation and organizational trainings for students and youth, oversaw the development of the Campus Food Guide, and facilitated agrifood system education events on campus and in the community. Gwendolyn Keith organized agrifood seminars, coordinated the Food and Public Health book and USDA meetings. Rebecca Thistlewaite assessed how CASFS's programs can be more relevant and accessible for currently underserved people, also conducted a regional needs assessment of organizations/stakeholders in order to develop a research consortium. Valerie Kuletz inventoried existing education programs at other colleges, universities and NGO's, and publications related to social justice and transformation of the agrifood system and potential research partners. Liz Milazzo, assisted with the Harvest for Health classes and the ES133 courses on the farm. Martha Brown edited the Campus Food Guides and documents; promoted agrifood seminar and other events and developed content for the website. Hilary Melcarek and Rachel Brand worked as Graduate Student Researchers. Whitney Bell, Jack Buchannan, Fortino Morales III, Damian Parr, Megan Carney, Sandeep Kaur Dhaliwal, Maggie Lickter, Kelsey Meagher, and Hai Hoang Vo were SAS Interns. Collaborators: UCSC Faculty, Staff and Orgs: Professors Ron Glass, George Brown, Melanie Dupuis, Julie Guthman, Bill Friedland, Melissa Caldwell, and Flora Lu, Provost Juan Poblete, Linda Wallace, Katie Monson, UCSC Dining Services, Sustainable Food Systems Working Group, Education for Sustainable Living Program. NC1033 Food & Health group. Cabrillo Community College, UC campuses at: Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Davis, & San Diego. California Food & Justice Coalition; Roots of Change, Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Community Agroecology Network. Trainings: SASI did trainings on facilitation, negotiating, conflict resolution, research design and reporting and held weekly conference calls and web-based collaboration. The Field to Fork workshop provided guidance for regional sustainable food sourcing from small and mid-scale farmers. CASFS facilitated a statewide undergrad conference at UC Santa Cruz on injustice in the food system. CASFS supervised an undergrad intern assessing CASFS and advised the undergrad interns developing the Campus Food Guide, as well as an intern researching social justice in farm to college. CASFS held OPERS staff & faculty Food for Thought Trainings on food systems, and College 8 Campus Food Systems student workshops. CASFS held trainings for youth on stakeholder engagement at Kellogg's Food and Society Conference. TARGET AUDIENCES: Undergraduate students, graduate students, university and community college faculty, food service staff and directors, community members, non-profits working in food system issues, farmers, farm workers. Research on how well CASFS programs serve and provide relevancy to underserved audiences is specifically designed to look at any of the disadvantaged audiences listed above. The organizational needs assessment & development of a research collaborative/consortium is making an effort to include a diversity of stakeholders and to gather feedback from organizations that work with disadvantaged populations. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: We have no significant changes. Very minor modifications were made due to the seasonal time limitations in reaching students for the UCSC cafeteria assessments and market cart, however, we implemented similar activities and achieved similar outcomes with the SASI program. And the regional consortium assessment on how to better serve underserved populations is still in process.
Impacts
The Sustainable Food Systems Internship program (SASI) is a successful model of educating, leadership building and very effective in empowering students in collaboration with faculty and campus food services creating changes on multiple campuses in California. Interns were to design and implement research and education initiatives on their campus; create partnerships that contribute to ongoing research and evaluation; and foster environmental stewardship and agricultural literacy about the relationship between food, people and the environment. Successes include: The creation of student gardens and hands-on learning sites at UC Riverside and UC San Diego. An intern worked with dining administrators to formalize groundwork for learning and action at Cabrillo Community College on increasing sustainable food service practices on campus and create new sourcing relationships with local producers. A campus food concept map and procurement assessment was created at UC Santa Barbara. The intern at Santa Barbara received a TGIF grand award for $15,000 for the next year to support this work with UC Santa Barbara. Campus outreach and popular education initiatives at UC Irvine by participants both formed a UCI Sustainable Food Systems Working Group on campus in addition to designing and implementing a set of 8 food systems-based educational "real food" roundtable events with panels, documentary screenings, farm visits and sustainable food dinners participated in by over 500 campus and community members. UC San Diego interns implemented a food service student interest survey to which 1,146 students responded. At UC Davis interns developed two undergraduate courses in Sustainable Agriculture and in Food Systems were that include action oriented, collaborative research design for students, staff and faculty. Interns are developing ways to collaboratively improve and share the coursework with the whole UC system and nationwide. Evaluations of the UCSC courses indicated their efficacy. The undergraduate class, Harvest for Health, a short experience of harvesting on the UCSC farm and lecture on food systems was rated well. For 78.5% of the students it was their first time harvesting food. Most students mentioned a greater appreciation of farmers and farm workers, organic and local foods. It was helpful to students in understanding both theory and application of sustainable food practices and healthy foods. Plans are underway to expand this kind of undergraduate curriculum for core courses at UCSC at Kresge and Oakes Colleges, and conversations are beginning with College 9/10 for the following year. The ES 133 course was a ten-week, hands-on course at the farm for undergraduates, students from UCSC, other campuses and community members. Evaluations indicated students learned the complexity of growing food, the time and energy it takes, provided a more holistic view of applied agro-ecology. All students stated they would recommend this course to others and that it impacted them significantly in many areas of their lives and study. Agrifood seminars engaged a broader audience.
Publications
- 2008 and 2009 UCSC Campus Food Guides Poster on SASI for presentation at UC Sustainability conference; Assessment of Models of Training Programs.
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