On April 6, the Cal Poly Humboldt Food Summit, a three-week event, kicked off at the Quad. Members of the community, on and off-campus, tabled promoting their organizations as well as making students aware of the new Anthropology minor focusing on Sustainable Food Systems.

The Food Summit began as a proposed idea to the Humboldt Energy Independence Fund (HEIF) by a student who wanted support on more Latinx perspectives on sustainability. The governance committee of HEIF really liked the idea and began moving forward on making it happen. 

“They moved it to a development phase where we hire students to come up with all of the logistics and details and feasibility,” said Katie Koscielak, sustainability analyst at Cal Poly Humboldt. 

The event is being led by El Centro Académico Cultura (ECAC) along with other collaborators in the community. Fernando Paz, ECAC Coordinator, said “One of my students, Darin Torres, was key to making that happen. We coordinated with him with La Comida Nos Une, Umoja center, Food Sovergrity lab, oh snap, and many organizations across campus to be able to talk about the importance of food as a social justice issue as a sovereignty issue, health issue, and economic issue.”

This is the first Food Summit at Cal Poly Humboldt and it may be the only one depending on how many students participate in the event. After all, this is an event funded by the students. “Recently I don’t think we’ve had any ideas to hold another food summit next year but there are a lot food ideas that came in one of them is an idea that the Umoja submitted to fund garden space at the Bayside farm,” said Koscielak. 

The Food summit will continue from April 6 until the 20. For more information on the event check out: https://lcae.humboldt.edu/food-summit. Here’s the upcoming events:

Wednesday, April 13 

• Food Sovereignty Lab Keynote Speaker Event, at 1 p.m
  • Indigenous Foods Festival Keynote with mak-‘amham!mak-‘amham/Cafe Ohlone, One hour Zoom webinar
  • Register at https://humboldtstate.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fVdxWILeT4CGHea9B8i3Aw 

Thursday, April 14

• Film Screening: “Gather”, at 7 p.m.
  • Hosted on Zoom, as part of the FSL film series already taking place this semester
  • Register at https://forms.gle/UtD35UCCF89LJqY27 

Friday, April 15 

• Ethnobotanical Plants Tour around campus, at 2 p.m,
  Facilitators: Josefina Barrantes, Sandra Zepeda, Karley Rojas 
  • A prerequisite for this workshop is the ‘Gathering for Indigenous Empowerment’ Workshop. If you did not participate in the prerequisite workshop, please complete the activity and assessment (please email kr228@humboldt.edu, Karley Rojas, for a link). 
  • Registration: https://forms.gle/MKfHQoGfDuqyk2gn8 
• Bayside Farm Volunteer Day, at 10 a.m – 2 p.m
  • Join Oh SNAP, Umoja and the Office of Sustainability at the Bayside Park Farm for volunteer drop-in hours! 25 vegan and vegetarian lunches will be provided by Oh SNAP to the first 25 attendees. Get yourself there, enter the farm at the second gate (to the East). Group will likely work on a combination of planting, prepping beds, and turning compost piles and possibly get a short tour! Bring good shoes and gloves as desired. Hear about Umoja’s Black to the Land program and connect with other students interested in learning about farming, gardening, and food production! Farm address:  930 Old Arcata Rd, Arcata, CA 95521
    • We will be serving bag lunches for first 20 attendees, catered by Chartwells
    • We will collect signatures on Liability forms from non-HSU employee attendees when they arrive at event. 

Saturday, April 16

• Indigenous Food Festival, at 11 am – 4 pm, in Wiyot Plaza (BSS Courtyard) & Native forum
  • To attend, COVID vaccine or a negative test within 72 hours are required. Masks are also highly encouraged!

WEEK 3

Tuesday, Apr 19, 2022

• Volunteering at the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab Indigenous Garden at 10 am
  • Led by Karley Rojas and Amy Iturburn
  • You must register as a volunteer for the Food Sovereignty Lab in advance.
    Community volunteer form: https://forms.gle/winXjkPZXEJ281T7A
    Student volunteer form: https://forms.gle/mXvcfYLQfmzjTnwb8

• Medicinal properties of Plants workshop, at 12 – 1:30 p.m, at BSS 408
  • Facilitator: Evie Ferriera & Karley Rojas
  • A prerequisite for this workshop is the ‘Gathering for Indigenous Empowerment’ Workshop. If you did not participate in the prerequisite workshop, please complete the activity and assessment (please email kr228@humboldt.edu, Karley Rojas, for a link). 
  • Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd5Kf0QzsmuKzLhs6KXS-4aDzsr3uOXNdsKPELVie211kqNCQ/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Wednesday, April 20

• Bring Your Own Pot on the Art Quad, 12 p.m – 1 p.m
  • Bring your own plant container and receive a vegetable start to get going on your spring/summer garden! Hosted by Green Campus & CCAT
• Cooking Demonstration (virtual) ~ Vegan Potato Soup
  • Pre-Recorded Vegan Cooking Demonstration for College Students on a Budget!
    • Taught by Zeen Vincent, and hosted by Oh SNAP 
    • Video will be posted to Oh SNAP’s Instagram on this date
  • Registration link: First 40 students to sign up, can receive a free bag of the ingredients to make the recipe, and some kitchen utensils if needed
  • https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1i3WufRqcF4VGv-6G-y8bSghMYobZamjSRjryncspTwI/viewform?edit_requested=true