Background story first:
I am, well now was, an Alternative Spring Break Trip Leader this past week, leading a group of participants throughout the Bay Area to discuss food justice and food deserts.
Wow. Hold on. Let's rewind and start from the beginning.
Alternative Spring Break is a program within the community service organization at my university and through multiple universities where students can chose to spend their spring break volunteering focusing on social justice issues occurring in America.
Food justice is the movement that provides healthy and nutritious food to low-income areas or food deserts.
Food deserts are areas that lack access to healthy and nutritious food. Access can be transportation, not having a car or a bike, money, not being able to afford healthy food and knowledge, not knowing what is healthy and what isn't.
The trip was in the Bay Area, because it was local and close to campus and there are food deserts and multiple places within the Bay Area that have low-income areas and felt that it was necessary to show participants that a social justice issue was occurring 45 minutes to an hour away.
So for the past week, my group, the other trip leader and 8 other participants traveled all over the Bay Area learning about food justice and spending our days in the warm sun working in the gardens and getting the most sexiest farmers tan you have ever seen.
Like sexy, in that I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a boy with this farmers tan, when I start wearing tank tops in a few weeks.
I can't tell you all about it, not because it's a secret, but it would make this blog post incredibly long and detailed and would take me until the end of the semester to finish and that can't happen.
So instead I will give you a list of places I went to along with pictures that I took and some blurbs here and there.
Oh, the Places I went
UC Santa Cruz Garden- Santa Cruz
Homeless Garden Project- Santa Cruz- Here they provide jobs in the garden to those experiencing homelessness and help them get through addiction, mental health issues etc through gardening.
Alemany Farm- San Francisco
People's Grocery- West Oakland
After our time at People's Grocery, we gave our group the challenge to make a meal for five people from $7.
They looked at my trip leader partner and I like we were crazy.
Yes, we were a little crazy, but smart crazy. We knew this would work, it would have to work. It kind of had to work because it was their dinner.
We split the group into two and sent them to the closest Safeway, which was in Emeryville as West Oakland does not have grocery stores and started.
The rules were no pre-packaged food and no pre-cooked food and it has to be healthy.
Standing in the middle of the produce aisle, my group and I realized that vegetables are expensive on a really tight budget.
What we bought:
spaghetti
one squash
one broccoli
one bell pepper
Parmesan cheese
Total: $5.77
The other team:
Brown rice
tomato
poblano peppers
one onion
small batch of potatoes
Total $5.97
The result, two delicious meals and full stomachs. Being on a tight budget can be done and making a meal for five people on $7 can work.
Above picture: Spaghetti with squash, pepper and broccoli with fresh salad given to us from a farm and toasted bread roll donated from the church.
How to Cook $7 Spaghetti
Boil 2 cups of water and sprinkle in some salt and wait until water is bubbly. Once bubbly, place spaghetti in the water and cook as said on the box.
While spaghetti is cooking, chop squash, broccoli and bell pepper and place on cookie sheet and place them in the oven at 350F for 15 minutes.
Drain spaghetti was done and add in vegetables, toast buns and spread butter and add in a tossed salad.
Below picture: Brown fried rice with eggs donated from the farm, tomato, poblano peppers, onion and roasted potatoes with fresh salad.
$7 din for the win.
(I can't teach you how to cook this one because I wasn't in the kitchen when it was made, I apologize. Ask my friend and fellow trip leader Nina if you're ever so curious)
Alameda County Food Bank- Alameda
To explain my experience at Alameda Food Bank this video of Lucille Ball accurately depicts it, but instead of chocolate I was dealing with oranges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI&spfreload=10
UC Berkeley Food Pantry- A student food pantry that provides food to students and student parents.
Edible Schoolyard- Berkeley
Okay now this place is the bees knees of elementary schools. It has a one acre garden filled with fruits, vegetables, herbs, chickens, compost, pizza grill and a gazebo. The garden is part of the school's curriculum and has students learn about the food choices in their lifestyle, incorporates science life (i.e. plant life) into the garden curriculum and after students are taught in the kitchen area of the garden where they learn how to cook the food that is in the garden and bring it to their families.
To my elementary school: Why the hell didn't we have a garden like this back in the day? I would have probably loved science and gotten a better grade in it.
Like I would have loved to have the Periodic Table of Vegetables in my classroom not the other type of Periodic Table with all the big words.
This place was the bees knees of all elementary schools.
Props to Alice Waters for founding this and incorporating this into the school curriculum.
Edible Schoolyards are not only in Berkeley but all over the nation. Look it up.
City Slickers- Oakland
A garden located in Oakland right next to Emeryville. The man working there at the time, Joseph, is a smart dude with a meticulous way of planting vegetables so that they come out perfect and beautiful for their farm stand to those in West Oakland.
Go Jo'.
Peace. Love. Eat Chard.
Berkeley Student Food Collective- Berkeley
The Berkeley Student Food Collective was started when a Panda Express was to be put in across the street from UC Berkeley. Not wanting to have a Panda Express, students protest against it and requested a place to have healthy food affordable for students, thus the Student Food Collective was born.
I felt like I was in the Food Justice of Disneyland, this place was amazing. I bought myself Stumptown Coffee in a small carton to dedicate my Portland days Freshman year and amazing Apple Cinnamon Granola that I brought to my work the next week and ate it straight out of the bag.
Slide Ranch- Marin County
Going along Highway 1 was breathtaking and beautiful and Slide Ranch next to the ocean wasn't bad either. It was totes' mah goats, sheeply beautiful and only one part of it chickened me out.
This is Muir Woods in Mill Valley. It's cool place filled with redwood trees and hikes.
Who knew that trees could be so awesome?
Petaluma Bounty- Petaluma
Located 15 minutes away from my campus, Petaluma Bounty focuses on growing fresh vegetables and fruits in a sustainable way and sells them on their farm stand so residents of Petaluma can get access to fresh and healthy food.
Peace out Alt. Breaks. Thanks for the inspiration and the inspiration to write this blog.
Food Justice all the way.
Thus ending my spring break post and my rant about Food Justice.
Read all about it, educate yourself on it and eat all about it.
Peace. Love. Food Justice.
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