Students make plans for real change at West Coast Leadership Training

On August 13-16, over thirty students from five different states gathered in Santa Cruz, California, for the Real Food Challenge West Coast Leadership Training. During this training, students discussed issues around sustainable agriculture and social justice, enhanced their leadership skills, and made new friends and allies. Most importantly, these students developed plans to revolutionize their campus food systems by launching real food campaigns this fall.

The training participants spent four days learning, cooking, eating, and dancing together in the Santa Cruz Live Oak Grange, the first organic grange in the country. The participants represented a diverse range of experiences – from student government officers to organic farmers to farmworkers’ rights advocates – and they shared their skills and knowledge in order to build the national student movement for real food.

In the picture: Takashi Yogi, the rental manager of the Live Oak Grange, describes the history of the Grange and their programs to support family farming and sustainable agriculture.

Although several participants were seasoned veterans of the Real Food Challenge, many of them were introduced to the Challenge for the first time. The group explored issues of oppression and privilege in order to create power for positive social change, and they examined frameworks for effective student organizing. They attended workshops in order to learn effective strategies for building coalitions, facilitating meetings, and working with campus dining services.

During the training, the participants visited the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food System’s (CASFS) Farm and Gardens at UC Santa Cruz. There, a graduate of their apprenticeship program described the forty-year history of student engagement at UC Santa Cruz that resulted in a 25-acre organic student farm, a successful farm-to-college program, and one of the country’s finest apprenticeship programs in organic farming. The beautiful farm and gardens were living proof that student engagement can make a difference in the campus community.

The group also visited the Homeless Garden Project, where intern Julia described their unique program to provide homeless men and women with transitional employment and job training. During the program, trainees learn how to plant, tend, and harvest organic produce and flowers. Additionally, the program coordinators connect trainees with resources for housing, food, drug rehabilitation, and low-cost health services while teaching them skills for finding and securing jobs after the program. Our group spent a few hours pulling weeds and clearing debris on their 2.5 acre organic garden. In the picture: Training participants volunteer at the Homeless Garden Project.

The Real Food Challenge West Coast Leadership Training was an exciting weekend of new friendships, enhanced skills, and deeper understandings about our food system as it should be -- the healthy, just, and sustainable food system that we’re all working to create.

For more information or to get involved in the RFC West Coast, contact Kelsey Meagher: kelsey.meagher@gmail.com.