Project Clearinghouse

Food Justice and Sovereignty at Calabasas Community Farm in Watsonville

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

The community of Calabasas Elementary School (CES) is comprised of predominantly low-income, food insecure, and underrepresented farm-working families in Watsonville. We seek to forge a UCSC/CES partnership where undergraduates and Watsonville families and staff jointly run an after school garden based education program for youth, establish a community garden (which is a sister garden to the C9/C10 campus garden), and foster education, leadership and empowerment.

Jump to: Contact | Project Description | Funding Sources | Metrics for Success | Results
Project Categories: 
Food
Awareness, Education & Engagement
Social Justice
Project Status: 
In Progress
Campus Organization: 
Provost's Sustainability Internship Program
Sustainability Office
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
College 9 and College 10
Project Location: 
Both on and off campus

Univeristy of California Santa Cruz
Watsonville, California


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressContact NumberDepartment
Flora Lu
floralu@ucsc.edu
831-459-3214
ENVS, C9/C10
Principal Todd Westfall
Todd_Westfall@pvusd.net
831-728-6368
Calabasas Elementary School
Edson Perez
epere20@ucsc.edu
323-718-2103
Funding Sources: 
UCSC Blum Center
UCSC's Measure 43

Project Description: 

As the provost sustainability intern, my primary role is to be a liaison between UCSC and CES. With this role I will be fostering leadership opportunities for students and parents where understandings of food justice and food sovereignty are exchanged and augmented. This necessitates undergraduate involvement, which requires outreach, recruitment, training, and action. These interns will learn how to plan, promote, and host events for this project, while participating in hands-on activities at Calabasas. They will take these skills and eventually help expand the numbers of students interested in the social and environmental justice aspects of our food systems and involved in the project. My goals for this year are: (1) to expand our social media presence, (2) develop stronger networks with student organizations, and (3) facilitate multiple events that connect campus/community efforts about food justice and sovereignty.

Metrics for Success: 

Success of this project was measured in quantitative and qualitative metrics. A few quantitative and qualitative results for this project is included below.

Quantitative Results:
* PSI efforts in funding the project. I was directly involved with funding the project to a total of $4,850 from SUA and Measure 43.
* Number of students participating as interns and volunteers. At the beginning of the year our internship started with 5 interns and by the end of the spring quarter we finished with 11 interns and about 10 consistent volunteers.
* Number of social media outlets. We have a total of 4 social media outlets including: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Wordpress.
* Number of UCSC students attending events that we hosted. For example, our food justice event in the winter gathered a total of 60+ UCSC students at Namaste Lounge.
* A community garden with basic infrastructure. The pre-garden site had no infrastructure. Now it has two sheds (nearly completed), 25+ plots, fencing, picnic tables, and a drip irrigation system.
*A vibrant and well-cared-for Discovery Garden. Our Discovery Garden has grown so much, especially in the spring quarter when we received plant donations, such as tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, and squash.

Qualitative Results:
* Leadership development in UCSC students and Calabasas community members.
* Educational equity to a community of mostly people of color.
* Cultural competency through the community garden.

These result are very difficult to measure. The easiest to measure would probably be cultural competency because we could receive direct answers from community members. When community members responded to our interview question for our recruitment video, many of them said they are thankful that they have the opportunity to choose what to grow in the gardens including culturally relevant and traditional food. This is the exact definition of food sovereignty! Unfortunately, it is not as simple to know if we promoted education equity or facilitated in leadership development. However, we can say that these results can be related to some of our quantitative results. For example, we can assume we fostered leadership development if more community members joined our work days and future community meetings. Similarly we can assume we promoted educational equity if more Calabasas student chose to be in the after school program rather than be placed into it by force, which is the case for many of the students this year. Qualitative measurements can be analyzed in the future. We hope that more community members join us and that more Calabasas students favor the garden among their choices for the after school programs.

Result Categories: 
Behavior Change
Education/Outreach
Results: 

The tangible results include: a vibrant and well cared for Children’s Discovery garden; an appropriate and successful corpus of garden based educational activities for youth; a community garden with basic infrastructure (e.g., sheds, fence, demarcated plots); production of culturally-appropriate food to supplement local diets; and a substantial group of involved UCSC groups and students.

The intangible results include: UCSC student leadership, cultural competency, and sense of belonging; empowerment and engagement of Watsonville families; an equitable relationship between a large university and small elementary school; educational equity and aspirations of youth of color; reaching out to and inspiring the public.

Projects like these, which involve the realization of greater economic and environmental justice, do not have a clear end date or sign of completion. Rather, it is a long-term relationship and partnership whose activities and goals are ever-changing and mutually determined.

Resources
Related Websites: 
Calabasas Facebook Page