El Centro leads Food Summit event until April 20 

The Food Summit at Cal Poly Humboldt, began on April 6. The three week event kicked off with an event on the quad where members of the Humboldt community, on and off campus, promoted their organizations and the new Anthropology minor focusing on Sustainable Food Systems.

The event is being led by El Centro Académico Cultura along with other collaborators in the community.

“One of my students, Darin Torres, was key to making that happen. We coordinated with him, Umoja Center, the Food Sovereignty Lab, Oh Snap!, WRAPP, La Comida Nos Une and many organizations across campus to be able to talk about the importance of food as a social justice issue,” said Fernando Paz, ECAC Coordinator. “As a sovereignty issue, health issue, and economic issue.”

The Food Summit began as a proposed idea to the Humboldt Energy Independence Fund. The HEIF is a student-run organization that focuses on creating a more sustainable campus by implementing projects inspired by student ideas, according to the HEIF website. The student wanted support for more Latinx perspectives on sustainability. The governance committee of HEIF liked the idea and proposed to carry out what became the Food Summit. 

“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. 

This is the first Food Summit at Cal Poly Humboldt and it may be the only one depending on how many students participate at the event. 

“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.”  said Koscielak. “One of them is an idea that the Umoja center submitted to fund garden space at the Bayside farm.”  

The Food summit will continue from April 6 – 20. For more information on the event visit www.lcae.humboldt.edu/food-summit. Here’s the upcoming events as of April 15:

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 Link
• 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
    • There will be serving bag lunches for first 20 attendees, catered by Chartwells
    • There will collect signatures on Liability forms from non-HSU employee attendees when they arrive at event. 

Saturday, April 16

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

Tuesday, Apr 19, 2022

• Volunteering at the Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab Indigenous Garden at 10 a.m.
  • Facilitator:  Karley Rojas and Amy Iturburn
  • People must register as a volunteer for the Food Sovereignty Lab in advance.
    Community volunteer form
    Student volunteer form 
• 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 people 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 

Wednesday, April 20

• Bring Your Own Pot on the Art Quad, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.
  • Hosted by: Green Campus & CCAT
  • Bring your own plant container and receive a vegetable start to get going on your spring/summer garden
• Cooking Demonstration (virtual) ~ Vegan Potato Soup
  • Facilitator: Zeen Vincent, and hosted by Oh SNAP 
  • Pre-Recorded Vegan Cooking Demonstration for College Students on a Budget
  • First 40 students to sign up, can receive a free bag of the ingredients to make the recipe, and some kitchen utensils if needed
  • Registration link