Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:For this CFP, MESA worked closely with partners on participant recruitment strategies to ensure inclusivity among the diverse populations of the Bay Area, California and across the US. Diversity in race, ethnicity, age, gender, geography, and professional status were all factors when deciding our target audience with each partner: EcoVillage Farm Learning Center in Richmond, CA, Center for Food, Faith, & Justice (CFFJ) in Berkeley, CA, Empower School and Farm in Umatilla, FL, and Black Thumb Farm (BTF) in Panorama City, CA. CFP programming led by MESA, namely the ToK mini-grant and workshop series, supported participants from diverse social and economic backgrounds across the US. The priority audiences detailed below were intentionally prioritized in light of the CFP goal to increase access to educational and funding opportunities within groups that have been particularly disenfranchised from such resources. Race/Ethnicity/Gender The Community Food Project supported four distinct programs that directly interfaced with and supported MESA's participants and targeted audiences. Across all programming, our primary targeted demographic were those who fell into the socially disadvantaged farmer and rancher categories as defined by the USDA. Women, first-generation, and low-income individuals were additional target audiences. Both the Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP), in collaboration with subaward partner EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, and the Urban Agripreneurs program, in collaboration with subaward partner CFFJ, prioritized outreach to Black and African American individuals for participation, with the BAP graduating a majority Black cohort in its first and second years. Of the 16 Trainees at Empower School and Farm, the majority were People of Color and/or women. BTF Agripreneurship Program participants were majority students of color, in line with BTF's mission to offer educational programming in underserved, predominantly BIPOC communities. MESA's CFP funded Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) $200 mini-grant program supported individual, majority BIPOC participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship and greater alumni network to design and present an original workshop related to agroecology. Participants in the MESA webinar series were also majority BIPOC. All nine of the guest presenters for the monthly webinars in 2023 who were People of Color. Webinar attendees included individuals from MESA's Agroecology Fellowship which primarily supported those who fall into the social disadvantaged group as defined by the USDA, as well as members of MESA's international community from the Global South. Age The BTF Agripreneurship Program was designed specifically for high school and transition age participants. All other CFP programming supported adult (age 18+) participants, with the majority of adult participants being ages 20 to 50. Geography CFP programming designed and delivered by our subaward partners focused on engaging participants local to their organization's geographic region. The BAP hosted by Ecovillage Farm Learning Center in Richmond, CA and the Urban Agripreneurs Program hosted by CFFJ in Berkeley, CA were Bay Area based programs. As such, Bay Area residents comprised the entirety of both BAP cohorts. While the urban centers of Richmond and Berkeley housed the offices for these programs, recruiting was open to the larger San Francisco Bay Area, and in the case of CFFJ, the virtual pilot allowed participants from across the United States to participate. The BTF Agripreneurship Program exclusively served participants from the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley. BTF's community farm is based in Panorama City, CA with a mission to directly serve BIPOC youth community members. Thus the business planning program curriculum that grew out of this organization was designed to meet the unique needs of its existing participant network. All 85+ participants in the program were students enrolled at partner high schools or local residents participating in BTF's Farm Hands Program. While three of the four programs were based in California, Empower School & Farm supported on-farm training in Umatilla, Florida. These farm trainees were recruited from across the United States to live and train at Empower's organic, educational, community farm. Trainees were from 8 different US states and 2 other countries, with a concentration of participants from Florida. MESA-led programming reached participants and audiences from across the US. ToK mini-grant recipients provided matching support to deliver their workshops within their respective communities, extending the geographic reach of this program across California and beyond. ToK workshops were hosted in 16 different US states, with a concentration of workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles Counties. The virtual format of MESA's workshop series allowed audience members to reach individuals residing across the US and internationally. Professional Status Recruitment was open to people of all professional backgrounds for the Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) at Ecovillage Farm Learning Center and 3-month apprenticeship program at Empower School & Farm. However, MESA and partners made deliberate choices to prioritize outreach to those who have not historically had access to training in farming and food pathways work. The majority of program participants were working professionals in fields unrelated to agriculture or food. As such, the overwhelming majority of CFP program participants fell into what the USDA defines as a Beginning Farmer or Rancher. Changes/Problems:While there were no changes in high level structure or deliverables (after the Q2 2020 grant reauthorization), one partnership change occurred following the Urban Agripreneurs' pilot program. The original partnership with the Center for Food Faith & Justice (CFFJ) to deliver Urban Agripreneurs was introduced in the form of an online, sixteen-week pilot program. This pilot partnership revealed challenges in recruitment at the scale forecasted for our deliverables. Coupled with CFFJ's limited staff, these challenges led MESA and CFFJ to mutually reassess CFFJ's capacity to meet recruitment and delivery expectations for the Urban Agripreneurs program. Though the partnership with CFFJ did not fulfill its full potential, the deliverables written in MESA 2021 CFP redesign remained the same going forward. We transitioned the Urban Agripreneurs program to a new partnership with Black Thumb Farm (BTF), an urban farm and youth education non-profit in Los Angeles. BTF and MESA's new partnership called for a redesign process that took place in July 2022. Due to BTF's youth outreach and focus (ages 14-18), the new iteration of Urban Agripreneurs was designed to run at two high schools in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley Area, beginning in February 2023 and concluding by May 2023. Working with high schools presented several challenges to the original timeline of the BTF Agripreneurship Program. While programming began in February as planned at Stoney Point High School, the partnership with the other original school became unviable just before programming began. This necessitated BTF identifying and securing another school to partner with for the project, a process that delayed the start date of the program at the second school (Valor Academy). Programming at Stoney Point ended as planned in early May, while programming at Valor Academy concluded toward the end of May. BTF had originally planned to deliver programming exclusively at two high schools to satisfy the CFP deliverable of developing 80 new viable food and farm businesses or food-related projects. Due to inconsistent class attendance at both high schools, it became clear to BTF that they would not reach the goal of 80 projects developed at the two schools. Thus, BTF adopted the Agripreneurship curriculum into their own Farm Hands program, hosted on-site at their Panorama City community farm. The Farm Hands Program was offered during the summer months of June and July 2023. The original goal of 5 24-month beekeeping apprenticeships was revised to 10 12-month beekeeping apprenticeships (delivered as Cohort 1 & Cohort 2) in the interest of offering foundational apiary education to a greater number of participants. A major challenge to this Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) came in the second year of programming. Cohort 2, which began in September 2022, was reduced from 12 to 10 months due to the climate. Cold, rainy conditions led to the cancellation of over half of the scheduled monthly workshops because they posed a threat to the live bee colonies. In lieu of in-person workshops, apprentices were assigned homework and invited to visit Ecovillage to work with the bees on an individual basis, weather permitting. The CFP objective of delivering 50 workshops in areas of agroecology, farming, and food pathways was challenged over the last year. Though MESA received a total of 53 (Transfer of Knowledge) ToK mini-grant applications, 14 were withdrawn at various stages of the planning process due to life changes and hardship experienced by applicants. Although only 37 total ToK workshops were hosted, the goal of reaching 250 community members with these workshops was exceeded considerably. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development was a focus both for program participants and internally at MESA. Part of the funds of CFP were used to onboard a GrizzlyCorps fellow serving an 11-month term of service at MESA. GrizzlyCorps is an AmeriCorps program that places recent college graduates in positions across California that serve communities tackling climate change threats in the fields of agri-food systems and forest resilience. Baked into the GrizzlyCorps fellowship are professional development objectives, including training opportunities and mentorship. MESA's Director of Education, James Sarria, served as the site supervisor and a professional mentor for the GrizzlyCorps fellow, Jordan Inzunza. This professional development blended into the work Jordan did with our program participants. Part of Jordan's role at MESA was to manage CFP programming in a way that translated participants' needs in the day-to-day to the larger organizational structure around programming. Subsequently Programs and Partnerships Coordinator Sabrina Smelser, who assumed many of Jordan's CFP responsibilities after his term of service ended, was presented with similar opportunities for professional development. She assumed a supervisory role within the context of the Resource Project (described in the Accomplishments section under "Virtual Network"), thereby gaining management and mentorship experience. Additionally, Sabrina developed a monthly webinar series under the CFP funding dedicated to hosting community workshops. The work of coordinating these workshops allowed Sabrina to hone her recruitment, facilitation, and time management skills. External opportunities for training and professional development for CFP participants started primarily with their programmatic content and deliverables. Under the instruction of Founder and Executive Director of EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, Shyaam Shabaka, Beekeeping Apprentice Program (BAP) participants in Richmond, California worked on the land, monitoring hives and learning what it takes to keep a colony healthy over a year. At the farm site, apprentices developed knowledge of local flora important to pollinators and their health. An overarching goal was to extend the BAP work outside the focus of one key insect and onto the larger community, understanding the ways that bees interact within their ecosystem. Apprentices also received instruction in topics related to extracting and handling honey and career opportunities in beekeeping. Several alumni created new, viable apiary businesses of their own, using the technical beekeeping skills and field specific knowledge gained during the apprenticeship to create healthy, sustainable products for their communities and simultaneously generate revenue for themselves and their families. BAP Cohort 1 alumni Malcolm and James Weeks created Sweet Simone Raw Organic Honey, a honey production business based in East Oakland. They currently sell their product online and wholesale to a number of community-oriented grocery stores throughout the Bay Area. Cohort 2 Alumnus Mimi Beyene applied her BAP knowledge during her efforts to build partnerships with women-run beekeeping businesses in Rwanda. Her intention was to support these apiary operations by providing technical support on the ground in Rwanda and creating marketing channels in the US for their bee products. Farm Trainees in Umatilla, Florida trained and lived at Empower School and Farm, a community-oriented organic farming organization led by founding member Pastor Buddy Walker. Here Trainees learned the tools, practices, and workflow of an organic farm. Additionally, Trainees were given the opportunity to build their facilitation and leadership skills through delivering Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops to community members that visited the farm. Trainees were asked to not only work and study but also to bridge their training and professional development back to their community. Most Trainees arrived at Empower School and Farm with little to no on-farm experience and thus received ample training and mentorship from Empower staff throughout the three-month program. At the end of the three months, each Trainee took home a learning plan that detailed the specific knowledge and skills learned, a verification of program completion that can support them when applying for agriculturally-related employment in the future. An intentional outcome of the BTF Agripreneurship program was that the youth participants grew their critical thinking, problem solving, and team building skills. These lessons were woven into the curriculum, designed to provide a structured introduction to entrepreneurship fundamentals within the context of agriculture through individual and group work. By the end of the nine week program, participants produced a business model canvas (BMC) that outlined their business idea, having accounted for crucial planning aspects such as market research, financial planning and forecasting, marketing and sales strategies, and legal and regulatory considerations. The final week of the program was dedicated to presentations, opportunities for groups of participants to design and present their pitch decks and business plans. An example of these pitch decks is provided in the Other Products section of this final grant report. This aspect of the Agripreneurship program provided the opportunity for participants to practice developing a presentation with others and delivering it in front of an audience. The Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) mini-grant program was facilitated directly by MESA with CFP funding. Grant recipients were awarded $200 to design and deliver a workshop on a topic related to agroecology. Workshops could be hosted online or in-person and were required to be attended by at least five community members. Recipients were also required to provide 1:1 matching contributions, meaning they needed to invest at least $200 worth of their time, consultants' time, purchased or donated materials during the preparation and delivery of their workshops. The result of these mini-grant requirements was that recipients gained valuable experience in budget planning, time management, event promotion, public speaking, and community engagement. Through the research process on their chosen topic, recipients also gained deeper conceptual understanding within their fields of interest. Furthermore, MESA encouraged mini-grant recipients to use part of the award to assist in their professional and personal development, including to cover course and workshop expenses and travel to in-person conventions and conferences. ToK workshop materials from various recipients' projects are provided below in the Other Products section of this final grant report. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Ways of disseminating information included social media channels for MESA and our partners, where participant recruitment campaigns and programming updates were shared. The most active social media platform for MESA was Instagram, which was an invaluable resource for participant recruitment across our USDA projects' programming. In particular, MESA posted programming updates about the Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) with the intention of reaching Bay Area residents as potential beekeeping apprentices and/or attendees to the end-of-program community event hosted at Ecovillage Farm and Learning Center in Richmond, CA. MESA also launched a social media campaign centered on the Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) mini-grant opportunity, the goals of which were: (1) to showcase ToK mini-grant recipients workshops and (2) to advertise the mini-grant opportunity to prospective applicants throughout the virtual MESA community. An example of a featured ToK project is provided in the Other Products section of this final grant report. In addition to social media, MESA's email newsletter served as a source of CFP programming updates and event promotion for supporters in the Bay Area and those in the larger MESA community. ToK mini-grant projects as well as BAP alumni updates were featured throughout newsletter installments over the last year. The newsletter also served as a platform for advertising MESA's monthly webinars, which fell under the CFP project's goal to create a virtual network through hosting a series of workshops for community members. The webinar series underwent several rebranding efforts since its inception in January 2023; it began as "MESA's Monthly Webinar Series" and is now called "MESA's Agroecology Happy Hour". Each session is recorded and made available on MESA's youtube channel. The link to the webinar playlist on MESA's youtube channel is provided in the Other Products section of this final grant report. While social media and digital marketing were important platforms for CFP updates to the larger community, MESA recognized the in-person, peer-led nature of our work called for communities to join and learn from each other whenever possible. As such, the ToK mini-grant program was intentionally designed to support recipients' delivery of workshops within their local areas. This increased the likelihood that workshop content would be particularly attuned and sensitive to the issues and needs of the communities from which they arose. Of the 37 workshops hosted, 35 were delivered in-person at locations within the communities recipients were living, working, and/or volunteering at the time. Workshop venues included 22 community farms/gardens, 2 community art centers, 1 public high school, 1 church, and 7 public community venues including parks, youth centers, and libraries. These ToK workshops were hosted across 16 US states including California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Mexico, Maine, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Alabama, New York, Florida, Washington, Texas, and Ohio. 2 ToK workshops were delivered virtually on Zoom and were therefore accessible to attendees from all across the US. Beyond the ToK mini-grant awards offered by MESA, CFP programming also required ToK workshops for both On-Farm Trainees at Empower School & Farm and BAP apprentices at Ecovillage Farm Learning Center. These workshops and events require participants to directly interface with the community and relay their knowledge, development, and accomplishments to members of the public who visited the farms. More specifically, the 16 trainees at Empower School and Farm were required to transfer knowledge acquired during their three month stay to a minimum of five 5 unique community members. Throughout the duration of their training, Empower also hosted multiple events for youth from local schools, teaching children about the basics of organic food systems. During these field trips, the trainees held key roles in facilitating the education of the visiting youth. BAP apprentices in Cohorts 1 and 2 presented their ToK workshops at two community events hosted at Ecovillage Farm Learning Center. The first of these events was held in May of 2022, at the conclusion of BAP Cohort 1, for residents in Richmond and the Greater Bay Area. This event saw nearly 200 community members attend BAP apprentice-led workshops that presented beekeeping topics in a manner that was accessible to the general public. The second community event was held in 2023 at the conclusion of BAP Cohort 2, where apprentices presented primarily to youth audiences and their families on beekeeping basics. Contributing toward MESA's CFP matching requirement, MESA partnered with a young community member Jean-Paul Pitre to film the first-year apprentices for a BAP video project that is now shared on MESA's YouTube channel. The video project link is provided in the Other Products section of this final grant report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The goals of this CFP address key structural barriers that under-resourced communities face in accessing funding and education within the context of food systems. Important note: the specific goals and objectives of this project necessarily evolved due to major changes and subsequent reauthorization of the grant in Q2 of 2020. The accomplishments discussed below are directly related to the updated set of goals and objectives outlined in the aforementioned grant reauthorization. Outputs achieved include: CFP Virtual Network 2 virtual platforms were developed as landing pages for resources related to agricultural production, agricultural business planning, and community education in agriculture. In 2021, GrizzlyCorps Fellow Jordan Inzunza created a google site called "Resources". In 2023, Jordan's site was adapted and expanded upon by MESA Programs & Partnerships Coordinator Sabrina Smelser and an undergraduate intern from UC Berkeley ina user-friendly digital document titled "Agroecology Resources and Opportunities". MESA GrizzlyCorps Fellow Jordan Inzunza delivered 3 virtual Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops to a total of 47 community participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship program. One workshop offered information and application support for a $200 mini-grant opportunity awarded by MESA with CFP funding. The other two workshops offered support to participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship program. Programs & Partnerships Coordinator Sabrina Smelser coordinated 9 community workshops for a total of 147 attendees. Attendees included participants in MESA's applied Agroecology fellowship program and other MESA alumni and community members. Each workshop featured a guest speaker with unique expertise in the agricultural field. Workshop topics included (but were not limited to) food sovereignty, urban and community-centered agriculture, biointensive farming practices, and herbalism. CFP Incubator & Accelerator The Urban Agripreneurs program piloted by the Center for Food, Faith and Justice saw 4 participants complete 16 weeks of two-hour entrepreneurship training delivered virtually. 7 participants started the training and completed the lecture and classroom portion, the first 10 weeks of programming. 85+ high school students and transition-aged youth from the San Fernando Valley participated in a nine-week entrepreneurship curriculum designed by Black Thumb Farm (BTF) focused on agriculture and sustainability. 85 new and viable food and farm business models developed. Participants' business plans related to many agricultural sectors including (but not limited to) dairy, vermicompost, cannabis, and beekeeping. CFP Community Education & Outreach 39 participants from MESA's alumni and community network received $200 matching grants to deliver 37 in-person Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops on topics related to agroecology. (Two pairs of ToK mini-grant recipients co-hosted their workshop, bringing the total hosted to 37 instead of 39). A total of 644 community members attended these ToK workshops on topics related to community farming, urban farms for LGBTQIA+ identified individuals, salve-making, food sovereignty, vermicomposting, and more. CFP Farm Apprenticeships 16 on-farm Trainees completed three-month apprenticeships at Empower School and Farm in Umatilla, Florida. Each of the farm Trainee graduates (1) completed a Learning Plan that reflects the specific knowledge and skills learned during the hands-on, experiential farm training and (2) delivered a Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshop on a agricultural topic to 5 unique community members for a total of 80 community members. 15 beekeeping apprentices from the San Francisco Bay Area completed a Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) at Ecovillage Farm Learning Center in Richmond, CA. 9 of the beekeeping apprentices completed a 12-month program that began in September 2021 (Cohort 1). 6 of the beekeeping apprentices completed a 10-month program that began in September 2022 (Cohort 2). 7 Cohort 1 beekeeping apprentices developed apiary-related projects with the financial support of a $500 stipend distributed by MESA. This provided the opportunity for apprentices to facilitate community projects related to various topics including honey production and retail, youth education on bees, and revitalization of urban public spaces with pollinator plants, among other topics. 200+ SF Bay Area community members joined EcoVillage Farm Learning Center in May 2022 for a joyful community workshop. 5 graduating BAP apprentices led presentations on such topics as holistic pest management, basic hive structure, & beekeeping equipment. 200+ SF Bay Area community members joined EcoVillage Farm Learning Center in June 2023 for a second educational community event. 3 BAP apprentices led presentations on such topics as apiary basics for youth and families, the ecological importance of bees, seeking employment with a master beekeeper and/or honey business, & organizing local officials to adopt "bee friendly" policies. Under these goals, MESA and our partners have worked to develop programs, systems, and relationships to positively impact individuals and communities through their local food and agricultural systems. Importantly, MESA partnered with nonprofit organizations (Center for Food, Faith and Justice, EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, Empower School and Farm, & Black Thumb Farm) to integrate existing infrastructure and community into the goals of the CFP. The establishment of new partnerships and programming has allowed MESA to deepen our ties with under-resourced communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Our focus was to build sustainable projects that continued to operate after the utilization of grant funds. Part of this was to empower community members to take ownership of programs, bringing forward ideas for future projects and determining how MESA could support them. This was actualized through CFP driven MESA's partnership with BTF and the development of the resulting Agripreneurship program. BTF partnered with two L.A.-based educators, one with a background in urban farming and the other in business, to design an agricultural business planning curriculum for high school and transition-aged youth. The curriculum grew out of a recognized need for capacity and skill building at the intersection of business and sustainable agriculture within the local community. The versatility and relevance of the Agripreneurship curriculum will enable BTF and its future partners to deliver in a wide variety of youth-education centered settings. BTF now has the existing curriculum to deliver in schools and at their community farm headquarters in years to come, and can thereby continue to serve as a catalyst for social equity and environmental sustainability through the Agripreneurship offering. BAP, hosted by Ecovillage Farm Learning Center, was likewise designed by beekeeping experts who were members of the local community. Shyaam Shabaka, Ecovillage Founder and Director and primary instructor of BAP, offers continued support to program alumni who are furthering their apiary study and practice now that the program has ended. Additionally, the apprenticeship program design is now in place and can be offered to community members in the future with support from other funding sources. This level of local program stewardship was an intentional part of MESA's larger mission to facilitate and fund sustaining projects within under-resourced communities of color. The ToK workshops given by MESA through CFP were designed and facilitated by participants within their local communities, making the workshop content particularly relevant and sensitive to the needs and goals of stakeholders. Furthermore, ToK workshops were offered to community members free of charge making them both culturally relevant and financially accessible.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:MESA has worked closely with partners on participant recruitment strategies to ensure inclusivity among the diverse populations of the Bay Area, California and beyond. Diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, geography, and professional status were all factors when deciding our target audience with each partner: EcoVillage Farm Learning Center in Richmond, CA, Center for Food, Faith, & Justice (CFFJ) in Berkeley, CA, and Empower School and Farm in Umatilla, FL. Race/Ethnicity/Gender The community food project supports three distinct programs that directly interface with and support MESA's participants and targeted audiences. Across all programming, our primary targeted demographic are those who fall into the socially disadvantaged beginning farmer and rancher category as defined by the USDA. Women, first-generation, and low-income individuals are an additional target audience. During this reporting period, both the Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP), in collaboration with subaward partner EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, and the Urban Agripreneurs program, in collaboration with subaward partner the Center for Food Faith & Justice (CFFJ), prioritized outreach to Black and African American individuals for participation, with the BAP graduating a majority Black cohort in its first year. Geography For this reporting period the majority of our programs geographically focused on participants from the San Francisco Bay Area. These two programs are the Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) hosted at the EcoVillage Farm & Learning Center in Richmond, CA and the Urban Agripreneurs program, initially hosted by Center for Food Faith & Justice (CFFJ) in Berkeley, CA. While the urban centers of Richmond and Berkeley housed the offices for our programs, recruiting is open to the larger San Francisco Bay Area, and in the case of CFFJ, the virtual pilot allowed participants from across the United States to participate. While two of the three programs are based in California, Empower School & Farm supported on-farm training in Umatilla, Florida. These farm trainees are recruited from across the United States to live and train at Empower's organic, educational, community farm. Additionally, our Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) $200 mini-grant program supported individual, majority BIPOC participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship to design and present an original workshop related to agroecology. ToK mini-grant recipients provide matching support to deliver their workshops within their respective communities, extending the geographic reach of this program across California and around the country. Professional Status Recruitment is open to people of all professional backgrounds, however MESA and partners have made deliberate choices to prioritize outreach to those who have not historically had access to training in farming and food pathways work. The majority of program participants are working professionals in fields that are currently unrelated to agriculture or food. Changes/Problems:While there will be no changes in high level structure or deliverables, one partnership change occurred following the Urban Agripreneurs' pilot program. Last year's partnership with the Center for Food Faith & Justice to deliver Urban Agripreneurs was introduced in the form of an online, sixteen-week pilot program. This pilot partnership revealed challenges in recruitment at the scale forecasted for our deliverables. Coupled with CFFJ's limited staff, these challenges led MESA and CFFJ to mutually reassess CFFJ's capacity to meet recruitment and delivery expectations for the Urban Agripreneurs program. While this partnership did not fulfill its full potential, the deliverables written in MESA 2021 CFP redesign remain the same going forward, as we have transitioned the Urban Agripreneurs program to a new partnership with Black Thumb Farm (BTF), an urban farm and youth education non-profit in Los Angeles. BTF and MESA's new partnership called for a redesign process that took place in July 2022. Due to BTF's youth outreach and focus (ages 14-18), the new iteration of Urban Agripreneurs will be embedded in high schools in the Los Angeles San Fernando Valley area, beginning in February 2023 and concluding by August 2023. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Professional development was a focus both for program participants and internally at MESA. Part of the funds of CFP were used to onboard a GrizzlyCorps fellow serving an 11-month term of service at MESA. GrizzlyCorps is an AmeriCorps program that places recent college graduates in positions across California that serve communities tackling climate change threats in the fields of agri-food systems and forest resilience. Baked into the GrizzlyCorps fellowship is professional development objectives, including training opportunities and mentorship. MESA's Director of Education, James Sarria, served as the site supervisor and a professional mentor for the GrizzlyCorps fellow, Jordan Inzunza. This professional development blended into the work Jordan did with our program participants. Part of Jordan's role at MESA was to manage CFP programming in a way that translated participants' needs in the day-to-day to the larger organizational structure around programming. Opportunities for training and professional development for CFP participants started primarily with their programmatic content and deliverables. Under the instruction of Founder and Executive Director of EcoVillage Farm Learning Center, Shyaam Shabaka, Beekeeping Apprentice Program (BAP) participants in Richmond, California worked on the land, monitoring hives and learning what it takes to keep a colony healthy over a year. At the farm site, apprentices developed knowledge of local flora important to pollinators and their health. An overarching goal was to extend the BAP work outside the focus of one key insect and onto the larger community, understanding the ways that bees interact within their ecosystem. Apprentices also received instruction in topics related to extracting and handling honey and career opportunities in Beekeeping. Farm Trainees in Umatilla, Florida trained and lived at Empower School and Farm, a community-based organic farming organization led by founding member Pastor Buddy Walker. Here Trainees learned the tools, practices, and workflow of an organic farm. Additionally, Trainees were given the opportunity to build their facilitation and leadership skills through delivering Transfer of Knowledge workshops to community members that visited the farm. Trainees were asked to not only work and study but also bridge their training and professional development back to their community. Trainees with little to no on-farm experience were welcomed, trained, and mentored by Empower staff after completing a learning plan to conclude their three-month program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Ways of disseminating information include social media channels for MESA and our partners, where recruitment and updates have been shared. The most active platform for MESA is Instagram, this page has been invaluable in recruiting for our USDA projects' programming. In addition to social media, MESA's email newsletter is another source of updates for supporters and those in the larger MESA community. MESA also supports program participants via stipends/mini-grants to relay knowledge back to their communities by designing and facilitating Transfer of Knowledge workshops and presentations. While social media, digital marketing and other channels are an important source of CFP updates to the larger community, MESA also acknowledges the in-person peer-led nature of our work calls for communities to join and learn from each other whenever possible. Beyond the Transfer of Knowledge stipends offered to a wider community of agroecology fellows, CFP programming also requires transfer of knowledge workshops for both Beekeeping Apprentices and On-Farm Trainees -- these workshops and events require participants to directly interface with the community and relay their knowledge, development, and accomplishments to the communities of interest. Contributing toward MESA"s CFP matching requirement, MESA partnered with a young community member Jean-Paul Pitre to film the first-year apprentices for a BAP video project that is now shared on MESA's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Fn33jXkEZ6k In Spring 2022, EcoVillage Farm Learning Center hosted a family-oriented day for those in Richmond and the Greater Bay Area to learn from the Beekeeping Apprentices and the land. This event saw nearly 200 community members enjoy a day of farm festivities and attend BAP apprentice-led workshops that presented beekeeping topics in a manner that was accessible to the general public. At Empower School and Farm, trainees were required to transfer knowledge acquired during their three month stay to a minimum of five (5) unique community members. Throughout the duration of their training, Empower has also hosted multiple events for youth from local schools, teaching children about the basics of organic food systems. During these field trips, the trainees take key roles in facilitating the education of the visiting youth. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?MESA and partners are excited to continue with the three flagship programs of the CFP, (1) Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program, (2) On-Farm Trainees, and (3) Urban Agripreneurs. MESA has continued our long history of giving by establishing a $200 mini-grant program in the form of Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops, under the umbrella of the CFP deliverables, with the aim of establishing new, diverse food systems leaders (Goal 3). MESA is building out infrastructure, capacity, and systems to keep supporting participants after program completion, to reach our goals of community change at a sincere level. Outside of the deliverables, our focus is less on numbers and more on genuine impact and listening to the needs of historically marginalized communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. As it relates to Goal 1, existing partners work in food distribution for people facing food insecurity through more traditional models -- food pantries or networks thereof. We are working with partners to examine how our work can facilitate and give access to the land and materials necessary for urban residents to grow food, working outside of models of charity to a model of food sovereignty.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Outputs achieved include: CFP Farm Apprenticeships Twelve (12) on-farm Trainees completed three-month apprenticeships at Empower School and Farm in Umatilla, Florida. Each of the 12 farm Trainee graduates completed a Learning Plan that reflects the specific knowledge and skills learned during the hands-on, experiential farm training. The twelve (12) farm Trainees each delivered in-person, Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops that reflected their on-farm experience to a total of sixty (60) community members. Eight (8) apprentices from the San Francisco Bay Area completed a twelve-month Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) hosted at an urban farm in Richmond, California. EcoVillage Farm & Learning Center facilitated the first cohort of BAP that concluded Saturday, July 9th 2022. Seven (7) apprentices developed apiary-related projects with the financial support of a $500 stipend distributed by MESA. This provided the opportunity for apprentices to facilitate community projects related to various topics including honey production and retail, youth education on bees, and revitalization of urban public spaces with pollinator plants, among other topics. 200+ SF Bay Area community members joined EcoVillage Farm in May for a joyful community workshop to attend presentations led by five (5) of the eight first-year BAP apprentices on such topics as holistic pest management, basic hive structure, and beekeeping equipment tips. CFP Community Education & Outreach Four (4) participants from MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship program received $200 matching grants to deliver four (4) in-person Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) Workshops on topics related to agroecology to a total of forty-three (43) community members. CFP Incubator & Accelerator The Urban Agripreneurs program piloted by the Center for Food, Faith and Justice saw four (4) participants complete sixteen (16) weeks of two-hour entrepreneurship training delivered virtually. Seven (7) participants started the training and completed the lecture and classroom portion, the first ten (10) weeks of programming. CFP Virtual Network MESA GrizzlyCorps Fellow Jordan Inzunza delivered three (3) virtual Transfer of Knowledge (ToK) workshops to a total of forty-seven (47) community participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship program: (1) One workshop offering information and application support for a $200 mini-grant opportunity awarded by MESA with funding from the USDA and (2) Two workshops offering additional support to participants in MESA's Applied Agroecology fellowship program. Under these goals, MESA and our partners have worked to develop programs, systems, and relationships to positively impact individuals and communities as it relates to food and agriculture. Importantly, MESA partners with nonprofit organizations (Center for Food, Faith and Justice, EcoVillage Farm & Learning Center and Empower School and Farm) to integrate existing infrastructure and community into the goals of the CFP. The establishment of new partnerships and programming has allowed MESA to deepen our ties with historically underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. MESA has assessed our capacity and roles in these communities after operating as a non-profit organization for over two decades in the SF Bay Area. Our goals are informed by community work that came before us. While these communities may have the answers and knowledge of the problems facing them -- lack of healthy, affordable food, underemployment, and a lack of generational wealth -- they often do not have access to the training or funding that will empower them to make changes. MESA's CFP programming accomplishments are only one small contribution of our commitment to work side by side with those doing the daily community work for urban and rural BIPOC people in food and farming. Our focus is to build sustainable projects that continue to operate after the utilization of grant funds. Part of this is to empower community members to take ownership of programs, bringing forward ideas for future projects and figuring how MESA may support these. This level of participant-focused feedback and ownership is a part of a larger mission to recognize, facilitate, and fund community projects. Transfer of Knowledge workshops funded by MESA are designed and facilitated by participants within their local communities, making the workshop content particularly relevant and sensitive to the needs and goals of stakeholders.
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Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Emerging farmers, urban growers, and agricuture professionals seeking to acquire marketable skills and knowledge in the areas of agroecology, micro-enterprise development and sustainable food systems. The majority of our project participants are and will be women and/or Black, Indigenous or People of Color. Changes/Problems:MESA REQUESTS NIFA or REEport suport to UPDATE THE ORIGINAL TEXT contained in the Non-Technical Summary, along with revision for the original text currently shown in the GOALS/OBJECTIVES SEGMENTS to better reflect our revised and reauthorized Project. As noted in previous Goals section: In January of 2020, MESA notified our assigned NIFA grant managers that our project was on hold and would require restructuring and reauthorization with new partners and sites of activity. Hence, the above "Major goals of the project" description for Goal 1-2 Objectives no longer reflects the activities described within, although the main Goal 1-2 Objectives remain essentially the same as originally authorized. While Goal 3 Objectives now focus on agricultural micro-enterprise exploraton and development. MESA's team spent the better part of 2020 restructuring the project, onboarding new community partners, and in frequent communication with NIFA agents (several of whom were ultimately replaced by new staff due to NIFA's relocation from D.C. to K.C.). On February 4, 2021, MESA received notice of NIFA-CFP project reauthorization approval from Dr. Lisa Jahns. MESA and our new community partners then immediately commenced with recruitment and new program offerings which will continue for the duration of our remaining NIFA-CFP award cycle. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Yearlong hands-on access and intensive training at a working urban, educational farm in Richmond, California (EcoVillage Farm Learning Center) for 8 students in the BAP. Mandatory monthly training for the apprentices are supported by an experienced ("Master") Beekeeper. During this training 1:1 mentorship is available and apprentices' questions are addressed. This training also require apprentices to present on their assigned topics related to beekeeping, fostering a communal professional development and sharpening apprentices communication skills. Hands-on access to a working, community farm in Umatilla, Florida (Empower School & Farm). Participants live and train on the farm for 3 months, working to learn the skills required to run a successful farm from an experienced farmer. Opportunity for 1:1 mentorship with MESA and partnering staff. Structured study of business development for 14 students in weekly, two-hour sessions of UA programming. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?>Communities of interest include the Black and brown populations of Alameda County. Results have been disseminated via social media (Instagram and Facebook) of MESA and partnering organizations. >Apprentices in the BAP are planning to deliver workshops to the community, where results and education are entangled. Required workshops written into the grant leverage participants' positionality within the community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Increase the scale of the UA program, with a goal of ~25 students in cohort two (2) starting in early 2022, to reach our goal of 80 students throughout the entire life of the project. Each BAP apprentice will prepare and present at least one BAP teach-out to at least five community members as a way to disseminate information. This format enables education to come from within the community in a grassroots manner. Increase cross pollination of fellows through MESA's other concurrent USDA grant-funded programming. Opportunities have been disseminated to MESA's networks, including communities formed around other USDA grants. Fellows who have participated or are currently enrolled in MESA's 2501 grant programming (AFFP and TAAP) will continue to be structurally encouraged and informed about the programming offered within the CFP.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
IMPORTANT NOTE: In January of 2020, MESA notified our assigned NIFA grant managers that our project was on hold and would require restructuring and reauthorization with new partners and sites of activity. Hence, the above "Major goals of the project" description for Goal 1-2 Objectives no longer reflect the activities described within (although the main Goal 1-2 Objectives remain essentially the same as originally authorized). While Goal 3 Objectives now focus on agricultural micro-enterprise exploraton and development. MESA's team spent the better part of 2020 restructuring the project, onboarding new community partners, and in frequent communication with NIFA agents (several of whom were ultimately replaced by new staff due to NIFA's relocation from D.C. to K.C.). On February 4, 2021, MESA received notice of NIFA-CFP project reauthorization approval from Dr. Lisa Jahns. MESA and our new community partners then immediately commenced with recruitment and new program offerings which will continue for the duration of our remaining NIFA-CFP award cycle. The Community Food Project (CFP) funding for MESA's revised project will provide numerous community based opportunities to increase access and development for training, and resources for beginner and seasoned agricultural practitioners. There are growing needs that our CFP funding will address, in collaboration with strategic partnerships, focused on direct capacity building, hands-on experiences and exposure to successful agriculture production farms and businesses leading in our food systems. One community partner is based in Florida and three are based in California, strategically, to leverage opportunity and a diversity of resources and tools to benefit our diverse communities, as well as to complement existing projects currently being led by MESA nationally. In California, our first partnership with the Center for Food, Faith & Justice (CFFJ) will lead the development of an incubator and accelerator program for our new and emerging farmers and microenterprise/business oriented students. CFFJ has a deep connection to the community with extensive successful community based programming models that will allow our work to have a running start as we connect CFP participants with professional development training, project planning and business development methodology they will need to move their aspirations and projects forward. Our second partnership in California is with Ecovillage Farm Learning Center, to focus on developing urban beekeepers who will lead education extension programming in our community. Beekeeping provides direct tools needed to mitigate the effects of conventional agricultural practices, specifically the support of pollinators needed in our communities to support urban agricultural systems. Our third partnership with GrizzlyCorps will provide direct support of full-time Americorps members to lead in the design, development, and management of our CFP network and virtual resource hub. This will require connecting with current students and future program participants to best guide the development of resources to complement the needs of our agricultural trainees, community partners and workshops to increase the depth and breadth or programming our CFP funding will support. In Florida, our partnership with Empower School & Farm (ESF), will prove to be an excellent opportunity for beginner and developing farmers to gain direct support and training during our three-month farm apprenticeship. ESF is a local farm, with hands-on learning opportunities in sustainable food production, financial & inventory management & online marketing. Training may include: planting, harvesting, building soil (composting), pest & disease management strategies, marketing farm products, exposure to various growing strategies, small farm animal husbandry and other farm projects such as beekeeping, barn, cabin and greenhouse construction. During the apprenticeship, students will have a chance to complete a teach-out workshop where they disseminate his professional knowledge and share his post program planning. MESA's established and emerging programs will benefit from the CFP programming. Currently we have, and soon will add, hundreds of students to our programming who are currently being trained in areas of agroecology, farming and food systems through training sessions and hands-on workshops. All of the CFP offerings will be made available to our current program participants to add further value to their personal and professional development. Our overarching goals remain consistent with the original project: to contribute to the growth and development of new and emerging farmers and agricultural micro-enterprise/business practitioners. What was accomplished under these (revised) goals? Onboarded an AmeriCorps full term service member through UC Berkeley School of Law, GrizzlyCorps. This GrizzlyCorps member will serve an 11 month term that focuses on capacity building for MESA, primarily working to help deliver the CFP grant with our partners Empower School & Farm, Center for Food Faith and Justice, and EcoVillage Farm Learning Center. The Winter/Spring, 2021 development/recruitment and September, 2021 launch of the first cohort of Urban Agripreneurs (UA), with 14 students enrolled and active in a 10-week program as an introduction to entrepreneurship in the food pathways and agricultural space. This program is implemented by the Center for Food Faith and Justice, CFFJ, an established nonprofit in South Berkeley California. CFFJ's goals of increasing organic food access and health outcomes for African American and low-income or homeless residents in Berkeley complement MESA's goals of reaching underrepresented communities in farming and food pathways. This 10-week series is only the first phase of CFFJ's programming, additional weeks of business plan development will be available for motivated fellows. Increased knowledge of food pathways and access to business development for food-related projects for 14 entrepreneurs, the majority of whom are from historically underrepresented communities (non-white) in food and agriculture. The UA program is currently offered virtually, with participants from across the United States enrolled, the majority of whom are BIPOC. The Spring, 2021 development/recruitment and July, 2021 launch of a Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) with EcoVillage. This year-long program is leading 8 active apprentices (3 more than originally conceived for the project) through the introduction of beekeeping, with access to a working farm with bees, beehives, equipment, etc. on site. Monthly Saturday workshops are required for all apprentices, and weekly activities are also supported for individual apprentices to accommodate their varied schedules There is currently a waiting list of 9 individuals who may replace active students if they need to drop out for any reason, or may otherwise join the 2022 BAP. The Winter, 2021 development and March, 2021 launch of an on-farm apprenticeship with Empower School & Farm in Umatilla, Florida. This program consists of 240 hours of on-farm training, where apprentices live on site and learn of the basics of farm work. This includes training on plant propagation, cover crops/crop rotation, basic animal husbandry, and an introduction to farm business. 4 apprentices completed the program during the Spring season of 2021, March to May, with a total of 16 participants scheduled to participate in three-month, ESF-hosted apprenticeships throughout the life of the CFP funding. This program leverages community partnerships of Empower School & Farm, providing healthy food choices for elderly, disabled, and low-income families.
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Our efforts target a network of urban farmers, most of whom graduated from the Bay Area Farmer Training between 2016-2018. This training program prioritized individuals from socially disadvantaged groups including formerly incarcerated individuals, immigrants, refugees and people of color who have been historically barred from access to healthy food and access to land. The projects that the 2018-2019 CFP funding supported included the recuperation of medicinal knowledge through an apothecary and the growing of herbs, while others focused on agroecological land stewardship practices. Changes/Problems:On December 23, 2019, , Ms. Leah Atwood, MESA's Director of local programs and partnerships and Co-P.D. on this project, was fired by MESA's Board of Directors for organizational misconduct (for reasons unrelated to the project). One month later, Paul Roge, Co-P.D. on this project, resigned in protest of Ms.Atwood's dismissal and upon learning that MESA's board discovered that no formal lease agreement was in place for the recently launched MESA Farm where key activities of the project were being developed and centered, resulting in a cessation of all on-farm activities at the El Sobrante site (due to Ms. Atwood's partial ownership in an LLC for the land being used for farm development, and the discovered non-existance of a formal lease, all activities on that land had to cease). MESA has since sought out and secured different arrangements for participants to access land for new incubator projects. In January, 2020, MESA attempted to contact the two grant agents who were originally assigned to our project, and subsequently learned of their departure from NIFA. We then reported this disruption to the next referred NIFA grant contact, Dr. Paul Cotton, in February, 2020, who acknowledged our update. However, Dr. Cotton's unexpected NIFA departure and additional, major staff changes at NIFA, coupled with the onset of the global pandemic, rendered MESA unable to communicate with NIFA personnel to receive authorization needed to update the project PDs or receive authorization to revise the project until recently, when we were grratefully able to connect with Dr.Lisa Jahns and begin the process to 1. complete the year 1 and year 2 reports and 2. commence with new scope of work/project revision for years 3 & 4. With submission of this Year 2 report, MESA looks forward to the opportunity offered to revise and improve upon our project goals for years 3 & 4, which we intend to relaunch in early 2021. While MESA intends to maintain the key project objectives of Growing the Bay Area Urban Food and Farming Web with Community-based Education, Land, and Market Access, we have invited and received commitments from the Center for Food, Faith and Justice (Berkeley, CA) and EcoVillage Farm and Learning Center (Richmond, CA); new collaborating partners to update and revise project opportunities that will support local community members and SF Bay Area graduates of MESA's new Agroecology, Farming and Food Pathways program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Members of the Educator's Circle and recipients of support for land-based projects continued to receive one-on-one support from MESA staff as well as peer support. The funding of these projects occurred throughout 2019, and key workshops led by members of the Educator's Circle occurred as noted above and during MESA's first farm fest, held on October 26, 2019. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?via MESA's newsletter to over 7000 mailing list subscribers, via social media (FB, Instagram, Twitter), year end report to Regeneration Alliance Report for major donors What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?**Please review changes/problems section below
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
• Broke ground at the MESA Farm, a Center for Urban Agroecology and Urban Farmers (Goal 2) • 1-acre of incubator site prepared with 24 beds, 15 different crop varieties (Goal 2) • Application created and circulated for incubator applicants (Goal 2) • Partnership initiated with Black Earth Farm Collective (Goal 1) • 10/26/2019: First season farm gathering held with 52 attendees for Ancestral Feast and Land Blessing (Goals 1, 3) • Tool and Seedshed design drafted and platform constructed (Goal 2) • 11 Community educators and food justice leaders funded with $13,194 seed grants for apprenticeships and mini-grants to develop three farmer collectives: Black Earth Farm Collective, East Bay Farm Collective, and Queer Ecologies (Goal 1) • Eight Community workshops held by seven graduates to 85 participants on seed saving, bio-char, value-added herbal production, land occupation for food sovereignty, silvopasture, vermicompost production, hugokulture, and animal husbandry (Goal 1) • 4 Regional Food and Farming Internships funded at MESA, Red H Farm, Planting Justice, and Solidarity Farm (Goal 1) • Partnership initiated with Center for Land-based Learning and NRCS to better serve farmers of the African Diaspora (Goal 3)
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Our effortstarget a network of urban farmers, most of whom graduatedfrom the Bay Area Farmer Training between2016-2018. This training programprioritized individuals fromsocially disadvantagedgroups including formerly incarcerated individuals, immigrants, refugees and people of color who have been historically barred from access to healthy food and access to land. The projects that the current CFP funding supportsinclude the recuperation of medicinal knowledge through an apothecary and the growing of herbs, while others focus on agroecological land stewardship practices.A sample of participant descriptions for the 2019 round of funding from CFP toward the Educator's Circle and land-based projects are outlined below: The East Bay Farmers Collective (EBFC) is a woman, nonbinary, trans lead collective bringing healing, health, and balance through farming, herbal medicine, and home cooked meals. EBFC is dedicated to agroecological organic farming, cultivating healing plants for indigenous medicine makers, and food production for self and small businesses. EFBCreceived support from the current CFP fundingfor the followingproposal:"East Bay Farmers Collective has space to host field days for experiential learning while continuing our work sustaining the farm. We can share our experience of learning by doing, and the process of how we have nurtured our collective interactions toward shaping a business enterprise while honing our farming skills." The Black Earth Farms Collective is "an agroecological lighthouse organization composed of skilled Pan-African and Pan-Indigenous farmers, builders and educators who spread ancestral knowledge and train communitymembers to build collectivized, autonomous, and chemical free food systems in urban and peri-urban environments throughout the Greater East San Francisco Bay Area." Finca De Luz is" an community farm and agro/ecology education project centering LGBTQ2SIA+ and BIPOC in Chochenyo Ohlone (Oakland, CA) and Seminole (Kissimmee, FL) Territory. Rooted in ancestral regenerative farming practices, we are currently seeking support accessing land to begin to grow culturally and regionally appropriate food." Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Members of the Educator's Circle and recipients of support for land-based projects received one-on-one support from MESA staff as well as peer support. The funding of these projects occurred in the summer of 2019, which means workshops led by members of the Educator's Circle have yet to occur. MESA staff facilitated and coordinated 5 technical workshops for an estimated 138 participants.Two urban soil and fertility management workshops discussed soil testing, microbial inoculation, compost building, and compost laws. On March 16 and Aptil 11, MESA hosted a two-part "Community Soil Lead Testing Workshop," which was facilitated by Sarick Matzen, PhD, Rob Bennaton, and Paul Rogé. Twelve East Bay farmers attended this workshop series. Each farmer implemented best practices in composite soil sampling for lead testing. The follow-up workshop provided participants with the results of their soil lead tests and discussed lead contamination mitigation strategies. MESA also hosted a "Fermentative Composting and Soil Microbiology Workshop" with guests Christine Jones, PhD, Gerry Gillespie, and Christina Bertea on July 13, 2019 at the MESA Farm. Twenty-six participants attended. Participants received both in-class and hands-on experience with making fermented composts. The Soil Not Oil Pre-Conference Field Day was held on Sunday, September 8, 2019 from 9am-4pm at the Gill Tract Community Farm and the SOGA Garden. This Field Day was organized by Cole Rainey (UC Berkeley), Peter Varas (MESA), Paul Rogé (MESA), and Rob Bennaton (UC ANR). The Pre-Conference Field Day included approximately 100 people (urban farmers, students, business owners, community organizers, etc.) in a discussion on "Landaccess, sovereignty, and liberation: how to facilitate a just transition in the face of private property," an activity "Crop planning for biodiversity, soil health, nutrition, and cultural relevance: a practical guide for farms big and small," and a walking tour of the soil health experiments at the Oxford Tract. The crop planning activity was facilitated by Peter Varas and Paul Rogé. In addition, Paul Kaiser of Singing Frogs Farm and Patrick Archie of the Stanford Farm attended and shared their wisdom from years of commercial and educational farming at different scales. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Given delays in receiving funding from CFP due to the government shut-down and the onboarding and training of new MESA staff for the CFP project, many of the steps toward th outputs and outcomes associated with Goals 1-3 will happen in the next reporting period. These include establishing an advisory council, supporting community-based educators in launching their food systems educational workshops, recruiting the first cohort of cooperative members to MESA's incubator farm, continuing to set up farming infrastructure, and establishing new marketing channels for greater food access to a range of consumers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Six community-based educational projects involvingover 10 food systems educators were funded at a level of $6,900. To achieve this, 4 in-person planning meetings were held with prospective applicants and newly accepted members of the Educator's Circle. In addition, MESA staff offered one-on-one follow-up and guidance throughout this time period. Goal 2: Five land-based community food systems projects were funded involving over 10 participants at a level of $14,100. The sameprocess was followed as described in Goal 1 to match participants with mentors, to place participants with apprenticeships, and elaborate working budgets for each mini-grant. Goal 3: Toward the goal of establishing new marketing channels, the following was accomplished to establish the MESA farm.Along-term lease agreement was draftedwith Wild and Radish; a business plan for a cooperative model of land stewardship was drafted; basic farming infrastructure and tools were implemented on3 acres of semi-urban farmland.
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