- Contributor: Rob Bennaton
- Contributor: Julio Contreras
- Editor: Melanie Weir
Recent discussions led by UCCE Bay Area Urban Ag, in collaboration with local community members, observed that "one of the most challenging hurdles for beginning and immigrant farmers (is) securing land to grow food. Meanwhile, religious institutions own lands throughout the United States that are often suitable for agriculture."
Faith-based Initiatives:
Varying in size from 1,000 square feet to 100 acres, faith based groups have the ability to partner with communities to "save resources, advance food security, connect traditional faith-based stories to land and agriculture, and help small farmers overcome economic and structural barriers".
Innovative examples include:
- A farmer leasing from a Seventh Day Adventist middle school in Sonoma County, CA.
- A farmer who leased land from her church while developing a farm project, allowing for her to scale to the point she qualified for a USDA loan for a piece of land that has a home and infrastructure.
- Partnerships were established with perennial food forest and seed banks (eg.4-acres on an Episcopal Church site).
"The Faithlands movement is growing nationally to connect and inspire faith communities to use their land in new ways that promote ecological and human health, support local food and farming, enact reparative justice, and strengthen communities. On the Agrarian Trust's Faithlands web page, download the free FAITHLANDS TOOLKIT A Guide to Transformative Land Use. Interfaith is a regional and national organization which supports congregations of all faiths, denominations and backgrounds by connecting them with farmers and supporting farm stand initiation, farmers markets, and CSAs.
The idea is innovative and traditional: Many faith-based groups are doing community-based food systems work, such as:
- emergency food distribution
- operation of commercial-scale kitchens
- stewarding lands
Faithlands work can be cultivated by local farmers
Lands stewarded by faith-based groups in urban areas present a huge opportunity for cultivation by urban farmers, given high costs of land values in cities. This use is be stewarted by organizations like Land for Good - which supports land transfers for farming and the development of land use agreements. Their amazing ToolBox web page has significant resources for building and negotiating leases for- and with- farmers and landowners.
Read More about the recent event mentioned above here: Growing Food & Land Access/Security with Urban and Peri-Urban Farms on Faithlands - UCCE Urban Ag Program Blog - October 19th, 2021
- Author: Leah Sourbeer
- Editor: Melanie Weir
Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program
Apply to join our University of California Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) team for a fulfilling position as a Community Nutrition Educator! Three positions are available where you will implement a nutrition education series for youth or adults in Alameda County schools and community organizations. The positions are based at the UC Cooperative Extension Alameda County office in Hayward and include fieldwork throughout the county.
Job Duties Include:
Coordination, management, and delivery of series-based nutrition education to adults or youth, including maintaining curriculum fidelity of audience-specific nutrition curricula, demonstrating physical activity examples for various fitness levels, and conducting recipe demonstrations in accordance with food safety protocols.
- Collection and management of enrollment and evaluation data
- Data entry of confidential participant information
- Build and maintain a network of partners
For more information and to apply for Job # 30767:
https://ucanr.edu/About/Jobs/?jobnum=2046
Your application must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on 3/9/2022.
- Contributor: Leslie Jensen
- Contributor: Beth Loof
Curious goats milled around the masked elementary school students who were raking out the livestock stalls. After a year of social distancing due to COVID-19 precautions, the goats were enthralled by the youngsters who visited UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center in San Mateo County.
“The animals were missing kids, they're used to getting more loving,” said Beth Loof, 4-H youth community educator at Elkus Ranch. “Goats are really social. They get distressed when they are alone.”
Tucked behind the rolling green hills of Half Moon Bay off state Route 1, Elkus Ranch is a working landscape that, in a normal year, hosts people from all over the San Francisco Bay Area for field trips, conferences, community service projects, internships and summer camps.
During the pandemic, UC ANR has limited visitors to "social bubbles" of children and adults for outdoor education at the 125-acre ranch, which has implemented a variety of COVID protocols for the safety of visitors. During Adventure Days, young people spend four hours caring for animals, tending gardens, making a nature-themed craft project and hiking around the property.
"We would love to bring children from urban areas of the Bay Area to Elkus Ranch," said Alameda County Director of UC Cooperative Extension for Alameda County and San Mateo.
Read Full Article by Pam Rice, Here: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=50272
For more information about Elkus Ranch activities, visit ucanr.edu/adventure or contact Jensen at LKJensen@ucanr.edu.
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings the power of UC to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, nutrition, economic and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu and support our work at donate.ucanr.edu.
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