Strengthening the Roots: Food & Justice Convergence :: Feb 18 - 20, Santa Cruz

Got this email invite the other day:

Next month, hundreds of high school- and college-age youth from all over California will come together for the largest youth summit on food and justice in California history!!!

2011 Strengthening the Roots: Food & Justice Convergence
The Real Food Challenge West Coast Summit
February 18-20, 2011
Santa Cruz, CA

With the help of partner organizations like CANFIT, Nourish, and the California Student Sustainability Coalition, we're gathering to:

* Make CONNECTIONS with student leaders and allies from around the state.
* Develop SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE of food system issues & organizing skills
* Grow our MOVEMENT for just and sustainable food through networking and skill-sharing.

Click here to register, and for more information about the schedule, free housing, and other fun logistics.

Hope to see you at the convergence,

Genna Lipari & Kitty Bolte
Your friendly California Regional Field Organizers

The Spring California Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence is here!

April 30 - May 2
UC San Diego Campus

Join hundreds of students, activists, young professionals and alumni from across California to discuss the decisive social and environmental issues of the 21st century, share best practices and resources, and plan action toward solutions that will transform our educational institutions, communities, and governments into just and sustainable systems.

A Sample of Convergence Workshops
* What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism
* Sewing the seeds: Beginning an on campus urban agricultural learning center
* Converging Storms: The Crises of Energy, Capitalism, and the Environment
* Carrotmob, A Unique Way of Greening Your Business
* Campaign to Legalize Democracy: Abolish Corporate Personhood
* What is Food Justice?
* What it takes to found and run a non-profit while still in college EENG style...
* Investing with Social & Environmental Responsibility and the Role of Institutional Investors
* Composting at Home
* CoFed: How to Put a Student-Run Sustainable Food Co-op on Your Campus
* How to become a citzen lobbyist

Students - register by tonight to get the early bird registration rate of $15. This includes 6 local organic meals, housing for 2 nights, and access to the entire convergence. The non-student early bird rate is $20.

You can also apply to receive a scholarship to attend.

The Real Food Challenge :: Making Waves Around the USA

I got involved in the Real Food Challenge's California student network after first learning about it from its co-founder, Hai Vo, a 2009 Brower Youth Award winner. I got to attend a workshop that Hai co-led at the 2009 California Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence at UC Santa Cruz.

From the Real Food Challenge Facebook page -

RFC is a nation-wide network of college students who want to see more food that is community based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane in our dining halls - food that we call "real." We are creating more student farms on our campuses, and demanding curriculum that educates about the importance of Real Food. We are working in solidarity with farmworkers and food service workers for fair working conditions and living wages. We are fighting to reduce the carbon footprint of our campus dining halls.

Here's the RFC's latest update - got this email message the other day:

The past month has been quite a whirlwind - 7 amazing Real Food events in just 3 weeks. In Montana, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, California, Massachusetts and Vermont, close to 600 young real food activists came together to learn, network, and plan campaigns that will reshape their communites' food landscape.


photo: SYFAS

Our first report is back: The Southeast Real Food Summit (aka the Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit, or SYFAS--pronounced "sigh-fess") was a big success. On a weekend with record-breaking snowfall, over 150 youth and allies made their way to UNC Chapel Hill. The big question: how do you get schools with thousands of students, spending millions of dollars on food, to invest in a truly just and sustainable food system?


photo: SYFAS

Watch your inboxes over the next week for highlights from our other events, and more about what's next for the youth food movement. For now: SYFAS!

Faithfully Yours,
The Real Food Challenge Administrative Team

p.s. Two friends from SYFAS were just in the news! Rob Jones of CROP MOB was in the New York Times. The entire University of Central Florida crew got the attention of a Florida newspaper for their hot "Honest Eats" campaign. Check 'em out!


photo: Crop Mob

From the New York Times article - The Crop Mob, a monthly word-of-mouth (and -Web) event in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon, has taken its traveling work party to 15 small, sustainable farms. Together, volunteers have contributed more than 2,000 person-hours, doing tasks like mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields.

“The more tedious the work we have, the better,” Jones said, smiling. “Because part of Crop Mob is about community and camaraderie, you find there’s nothing like picking rocks out of fields to bring people together.”

The affable, articulate Jones, 27, is part of the group’s grass-roots core, organizing events and keeping them moving. The Mob was formed during a meeting about issues facing young farmers, during which an intern declared that better relationships are built working side by side than by sitting around a table. So one day, 19 people went to Piedmont Biofarm and harvested, sorted and boxed 1,600 pounds of sweet potatoes in two and a half hours. A year later, the Crop Mob e-mail list has nearly 400 subscribers, and the farm fests now draw 40 to 50 volunteers.


For more info about the Real Food Challenge and how you can get involved in your community, go here

California Student Sustainability Coalition Conference - November 6 - 8, 2009 @ UC Santa Cruz Campus

photo: Spring 2007 Convergence - Flickr CSSC.

Join Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange & the Green Festival, as well as students and young leaders from across California -- including Erica Fernandez, a Brower Youth Award (BYA) winner 2007, and Alec Loorz, Kids vs. Global Warming & BYA winner 2009 -- as we all come together to build community and organizing capacity amongst individuals, campuses, and campaigns in the student sustainability and campus greening movement. Share skills and resources, learn about what your peers are doing, network with other schools, and have fun!

2009 Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence (Conference) @ UC Santa Cruz Campus - Friday, November 6 - Sunday, November 8, 2009.

Check out the Convergence Schedule here.

Workshops available at the Convergence include topics like Real Food Challenge, On Campus Organizing and Water Justice, Eating the Power of your Plate, UCSC Campus Sustainability Plan/Campaign Strategies, Sustainable Consumerism, Power Shift: California to Copenhagen, Environmental Education for the Next Generation, Fair Food: Socially Just Farm Labor in America.

To register for the event (for a very reasonable fee; or apply for a scholarship) go here. Discount if you register by October 28th.

I attended the Spring 2009 Convergence at Cal Poly, and it was fantastic! I'm sure that this one at UC Santa Cruz will be great, too.


photo: by Ryan Andersen - Birds eye view of lunch during CSSC's Spring Convergence 2009 at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.


The Convergences are organized by the California Student Sustainability Coalition - a project of the Earth Island Institute

Founded in 2003, the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) is made up of student organizations from all over California that collaborate to advance sustainability in all areas of human endeavor.

We are an active community of young leaders who are empowered to integrate sustainability into all aspects of our lives and work. Our goal is to catalyze and create life-affirming change in ourselves and the institutions we engage so that we can rise to the unprecedented challenges of the twenty-first century and thrive.

While we were founded in the University of California (UC) system, we are rapidly growing to include California State University (CSU) and California Community College (CCC) campuses, as well as private universities and even a handful of high schools.

You can sign up to receive their e-newsletter here, as well as read past editions of the e-newsletter.