Food & Justice Events

Food and Climate Justice Events

Andy Fisher, author of Big Hunger, Executive Director of EcoFarm, and a leading force for social  and ecological justice in the anti-hunger and food movements in the U.S. shared his insights. Andy and colleagues discussed the charity-based emergency food system’s response to hunger exacerbated by COVID-19. The panel assessed the benefits and risks of the system’s rapid expansion, and persistent challenges from the system’s lack of long-term investment in community-organizing and policy change to address the root causes of hunger. This discussion also identified several positive examples of programmatic change, such as the universal school meals in California, student basic needs programs at some universities, and food bank partnerships with food justice groups, as well as longer term work to advance the human right to food and alleviate poverty.  The conversation was hosted by the South Bay Food Justice Collaborative; moderated by the Initiative’s Christopher Bacon; convened by Wei-ting Chen, Executive Director, Stanford Food for Health Equity Lab; and facilitated by Lucy Diekmann, Urban Agriculture/Food Systems Advisor, Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

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The Initiative’s Chris Bacon and Maria Eugenia Flores, community partners Misael Rivas (PRODECOOP) and Raul Diaz (ASDENIC), and local cooperatives and research assistants met with more than 60 family farmers to present and discuss their participatory action research on diversification for food security, dietary diversity and climate resilience.  This report back to community participants was based on four years of research on smallholder coffee systems in Mesoamerica. Additional collaborators included Universidad Nacional Agraria in Nicaragua, Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas (CESMACH) and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, and the Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and The University of Vermont.

Raj Patel, a noted expert in the world food system, delivered the keynote talk in an event on  decolonizing the food system to address intertwined problems of hunger, climate change, racism, and food sovereignty. Emily Schweng (Veggielution), Fernando Fernandez Leiva (La Mesa Verde), Paola Felix (Environmental Studies ‘22), and moderator Chris Bacon offered responses from their perspectives as activists and researchers for local food justice. The Initiative co-sponsored this event with SCU’s Center for Arts and Humanities, and the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education’s Bannan Forum.

Chris Bacon led a team of 11 undergraduates and recently graduated alumni in collaboration with community- based partners as they presented three posters at the largest annual scientific meeting for professional geographers. Bacon organized abstract submission and funding, and mentored the production of posters that addressed student food security and sovereignty at SCU, food system sustainability and change on college campuses, and responses to farmers and families’ needs during Covid-19.

A Regional Food Justice Response to Farmers and Families during COVID-19

Student-Led Action Research on Students Basic Needs and Food Sovereignty

Food Justice Initiatives: A Home Gardening and Food Pantry Pilot Study

Bacon_ 2022 AAG_UrbanFoodJusticePresenation

Following a screening of The Ants and the Grasshopper, Professor Chris Bacon hosted a talkback with the film’s co-director Raj Patel, an author and expert on global food systems, about female small farmers and climate change. The film follows Anita Chitaya, a small farmer and local leader in the village of Bwabwa, Malawi, as she travels from her drought-stricken village to meet farmers and politicians in the US to share the impact of climate change on her life. The film explores how power and privilege shape climate justice and food justice from Africa to America. The Initiative co-sponsored this event with the SCU Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The Initiative’s Chris Bacon and Lauren Ornelas of San Jose's Food Empowerment Project discussed how activists and academics engage with ethics, rights, sustainability, culture, and plant-based diets as food systems change during the climate crisis. The Food Empowerment Project presented their  many community programs from farmworker and food justice to grocery store campaigns with a special focus on vegan diets and chocolate. They mentioned how SCU campus researchers have analyzed the role of food in contributing to global warming, and the ways that social and environmental justice intermingle. They taught how to act and organize to access more culturally-relevant food offerings and environmental justice outcomes in school, community and the world.

Chris Bacon and 8 research students were featured in a research session on un/common good students’ voices on agroecology, food justice, and food systems change at SCU.

2021 Food Justice Research Presentation

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During Earth Week, a group of Santa Clara University students presented their research at the New Horizons in Conservation Conference organized by the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative within Yale’s School of the Environment. Under the guidance of Professor Christopher Bacon (Environmental Studies & Sciences), Chloe Gentile-Montgomery ‘21 (Environmental Science and Ethnic Studies), Julia Jenak ‘21 (Environmental Science), and Ben Grundy ‘21 (Environmental Science and Political Science) are uncovering the reality of food and housing insecurity among students at SCU. Following the conference, the student’s reported that their research was well received by the poster judges and the other researchers in the session. One of the biggest takeaways for the student research group was how important it is to collaborate and share information with community members, other researchers, and the general public in order to address issues of environmental injustice. While expressing her satisfaction with the conference, Chloe Gentile-Montgomery said that she “appreciated how marginalized voices were highlighted and how open the discussion was.” The research team hopes that their research will help inform the University on the extent of needs insecurity among students, increase awareness of and access to resources for students dealing with food insecurity, and break down the stigma around food insecurity so that all students can move towards food sovereignty.

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Under the guidance of Christopher Bacon, three undergraduate students Chloe Gentile-Montgomery '21 (Environmental Science and Ethnic Studies), Julia Jenak '21 (Environmental Science), and Ben Grundy '21 (Environmental Science and Political Science) presented their research on student food and housing insecurity as well as efforts to build food sovereignty at SCU.

Posters on Sustainable Food Systems, Food Justice, and Diversified Farming Presented at the AAG Annual Meeting.

Chris Bacon led a team of 8 undergraduate students and recently graduated alumni as  they presented three posters at the largest annual scientific meeting for professional geographers. Bacon organized abstract submission, funding, and mentored the production of posters that addressed student food security and sovereignty at SCU, food system sustainability and change on college campuses, and diversified farming and climate resilience in Nicaragua.

A Student Assessment of Food Security and Sovereignty as Universities Respond to COVID-19

Beyond the Bean: Unpacking Diversification for Food Security, Dietary Diversity and Climate Resilience among Smallholders and Coffee Cooperatives in Nicaragua

Toward Real Food and Climate Neutrality on Campus: Assessing new tools for measuring institutional food system sustainability, transformation, and change

Assessing Diversification, Food Security, and Dietary Diversity with Organized Smallholders in Nicaragua

Christopher Bacon and Gabriella Ballardo ‘21 (Environmental Studies and Italian Studies) presented the poster “Assessing Diversification, Food Security, and Dietary Diversity with Organized Smallholders in Nicaragua” at the Fourth International (Online) Conference on Global Food Security based in Montpellier France. Co-authors of this research include Maria Eugenia Flore Gomez, Skyler Kriese (‘20), Erica Martinez (‘20), Emma McCurry (‘21), Gabriela Hamm (‘20),  and Annalicia Anaya (‘20) as well as colleagues from the National Agricultural University and the PRODECOOP Cooperative in Nicaragua. Although increasing evidence suggests that agroecology-based farm diversification can generate multiple benefits little is known about what types of diversification work for whom and how it correlates with key livelihood outcomes. The poster summarized four years of community- based participatory action research and identified diversification as a key strategy for improving household dietary diversity with potential to also support gender equity and climate resilience.  For those of us in California, it was a lively 6:30 am conversation with participants from different parts of the world and diverse backgrounds.

12.07.2020 Poster: Nicaragua AgroecologyFoodSecurityGlobal Conference

The Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative at  Santa Clara University,in collaboration with Ecojesuit Global Network  and Jesuit Conference of South Asia organized an online dialogue on ‘Using agroecology to drive food system change : Responses and collaborations to address the present economic-ecological crisis‘. 150 plus participants from USA, Latin America, India, Philippines and other parts of the world participated in the webinar on Zoom platform. The event was also live broadcasted on Youtube to reach out to the wider audience. Dr. Pedro Walpole, Coordinator – Ecojesuit Global Network, Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya International and  Dr. Chris Bacon, from SCU enriched the audience with their sharing on the concerns and issues related to poisoning of Agricultural production due to extensive use of chemical fertilizers, Food and Health Security for All, Ecology and Sustainable Agriculture and Covid-19 in a global context. Video testimonies from the Community Food System & Urban Agricultural Model in the Bay Area, California, Fresh Approach, whose mission is to improve access to healthy food in California,  La Mesa Verde,SHCS, a network of Urban Gardeners and Valley Verde  creating access to healthy and culturally appropriate food for everyone; provided the audience with examples of various initiatives emerging in the context to meaningfully engage and respond as individuals, communities and organizations. The Q&A and Round Table Dialogue sessions addressed the concerns of the audience and the broader issue and mandate in the field of Agroecology.

Transcript of Dr. Shiva's presentation

11.17.2020 Agroecology and Food Systems Change CB Presentation

The testimonial videos: Valley Verde, Fresh Approach, and La Mesa Verde

Post event article: Industrial Agriculture is Creating Poison, Not Food: Say Agroecologists

Gather: A film screening in honor of Native American Heritage Month, followed by a talkback with the Director of the film, Sanjay Rawal.  Gather examines Native American reclaiming their spiritual, political, and cultural identities through food sovereignty. This event was cohosted by OML, ODI, The Forge Garden and The Environmental Justice and Common Good Initiative.

The Environmental Justice and Common Good Initiative congratulates Pauline Phuong Nguyen for her award given by the College of Arts and Sciences for her service. While her primary services have been to the Ethnic Studies Department, other Departments, Initiatives and so many students, have also benefited from her generosity.  In May 2020, Pauline responded to our Food Justice Program's call for help to serve Vietnamese gardeners in San Jose as part of a collective response to Covid 19, volunteering her translation services to help Valley Verde reach Vietnamise speaking communities in San Jose.  She translated multiple documents and a video, which is dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities by providing low-income families educational programs, edible gardens, and micro-entrepreneurship opportunities that create food security and lead to self-sufficiency.

The South Bay Food Justice Collaborative's  submitted a comment to  contribute to SCC board of supervisors meeting agenda item #10 regarding the Food, Agriculture and Health Access Initiative (FAHAI) Referral and a report back that took place online on september 1st, part of this agenda packet.  Christopher Bacon worked with an intern Katherine Omalley on this policy doc, and also collaborated with colleagues from La Mesa Verde, Second Harvest Food Bank, Stanford and others with the goal to build more equity into the emergency food security response and also try to build back a more sustainable food system

In this online panel organized by the tUrn Project, SCU Food System Fellows Emma McCurry and Tyler Whittaker, advised by the Initiative’s Chris Bacon and Center for Sustainability Director Lindsey Kalkbrenner, shared their findings after analyzing 11,000 lines of data to assess the sustainability of SCU’s food sourcing and discussed plans to draw down global warming emissions one meal plan at a time

Iris Stewart-Frey participated in an online panel organized by the SCU tUrn Project with Karissa Kruse, President of Sonoma County Winegrowers, and Nitzan Pelman, CEO and Founder of Climb Hire, an inclusive talent development firm.

Jahi Chappell, author of Beginning to End Hunger (UC Press), and recently-appointed Executive Director of Food First, presented recent research and future prospects for food systems change at scales ranging from cities to international policy fora convened by the United Nations, drawing on his study in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He also shared lessons for how university researchers can collaborate productively and respectfully with communities, which helped to inform the Initiative’s ongoing work with the emerging South Bay Food Justice Collaborative. Chappell’s talk was co-sponsored by SCU’s Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Leavey School of Business.
Image: Jahi Chappell. 

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The EJ and Common Good Initiative's emerging food justice program collaborated with the University of California Cooperative Extension and community-based food justice groups, including Fresh Approach, La Mesa Verde, Valle Verde, and Veggielution, to organize a half-day workshop at SCU. The workshop brought together 38 South Bay organizations working on food justice, farming, and public health issues for learning, dialogue, and exploration of potential research and social change partnerships to leverage collective impact. Participants shared their work and learned from food justice leaders in the wider Bay Area.

Photo Credit: Isabel Medina, Fresh Approach

>> read the South Bay Food Justice Workshop Agenda
>> read the South Bay Food Justice workshop Executive Summary

Alumnae and former research assistant Déjà Thomas (‘16) discussed environmental justice in California, including Thomas’ action-oriented research on food justice, race, and transformative climate adaptation in Southern California. Like her SCU faculty mentor Christopher Bacon, Thomas was recently awarded a Switzer Fellowship. She is completing a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, as well as a Food Studies Certificate, at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.