UC-led partnership resulted in a successful “Breakfast on the Playground” campaign for Coachella Valley Unified Child Nutrition Services, increasing school breakfast participation at Cesar Chavez Elementary from 29% to 50% of student population.

The Issue

Cesar Chavez Elementary School located in Eastern Coachella Valley is a school with high needs facing several challenges including high poverty, food insecurity, and childhood obesity. According to Lift to Rise's Neighborhood Data for Social Change, almost one in five of the residents live below 100% of federal poverty level in 2017. The percentage of free or reduced price meals at this school is 87%,...

UC Cooperative Extension Advisor Natalie Price co-chaired a food security symposium with 85 organizations focused on collective action in Los Angeles. 86% of those surveyed increased their understanding of policies affecting food insecure individuals & food assistance programs.

The Issue

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) considers a household to be food insecure if it experiences either: low food security – reports a reduction in the quality, variety, or desirability of diet, or very low...

UC partnership with Karuk, Yurok, and Klamath Tribes in Klamath Basin improves family and community food security, community health and well-being, and tribal food sovereignty. In a Basin-wide evaluation, 65% felt the community was more food secure. 

The Issue

Tribes in the Klamath River Basin are among the poorest and most food insecure in the US despite great ecological diversity and a history of plentiful foods including salmon, deer, elk, acorns, mushrooms, and berries. Commercial fishing, mining, clear-cut logging, fire suppression, dams, and industrial agriculture coupled with decades of forced assimilation have disrupted traditional food systems...