- Author: Linda J Forbes
From August 2023 to March 2024, UC Cooperative Extension in San Bernardino County provided interactive classes and demonstrations in English and Spanish for ethnically diverse and limited-resource residents that led to increased food security and reduced food waste.
These efforts were funded by the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Small Grants Program, which supports the development of sustainable community food systems.
Workshops draw on experts from variety of UC ANR programs
The project in San Bernardino County, led by Christine Davidson of UCCE and the Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program, mobilized a team of EFNEP, UC Master Gardener Program and UC Master Food Preserver Program staff and volunteers to educate families in underserved communities through a series of hands-on workshops.
Thirty-six mothers attended EFNEP lessons from the “Eating Smart, Being Active” curriculum focusing on improving knowledge and skills in the areas of diet quality, food resource management, food safety, physical activity and food security.
They also attended Master Gardener workshops to learn how to grow vegetables in their home gardens and compost food waste, and Master Food Preserver classes where they made healthy recipes and learned about safe food preservation with a focus on food waste prevention.
Two hundred and twenty children at two schools attended a series of EFNEP lessons and a workshop to learn about composting with worms or composting in a jar. “The students love the hands-on activities, and with this knowledge they can participate in composting food waste at home,” said Davidson. “It was especially rewarding to teach the kindergarteners about composting since it was a new concept for them.”
The SAREP grant provided funding for kits and materials that parents and children took home to apply their new knowledge in making different salads, using scraps to make vegetable broth, growing herb gardens and composting at home. “The kits are great incentives for people to attend the classes and reinforce their learning at home,” Davidson noted.
With better meal planning and proper food storage, families can save food and money. “I have begun saving scraps to make vegetable broth that I use to make rice. My kids love collecting the scraps and it saves money buying the broth,” said a parent at Bradley Elementary School in San Bernardino.
Additionally, families are educated on the organic waste reduction requirements of Senate Bill 1383 and how they can do their part to reduce food waste.
The final product of the SAREP-funded project will be a Food Waste Prevention Workshop Toolkit in Spanish and English that will be shared widely and delivered in UC ANR workshops by staff and volunteers in other counties. “Our goal beyond providing these materials to support our community is to help grow their use across UC ANR so more families can benefit from them,” said Davidson.
Small grants, big impacts
Funding priorities for the Small Grants Program include supporting California farmers, ranchers and land stewards in the adoption of environmentally regenerative practices and partnering with rural, urban and tribal communities to expand access to healthy, sustainably produced food and promote community well-being.
“The Small Grants Program is an important part of our mission,” said Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, interim director of UC SAREP, a program of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “Program outcomes show that a small financial investment can have a large impact in improving the lives of Californians.”
This article is part of a series on the impact of the UC SAREP Small Grants Program. To support this program, please donate here. Choose SAREP Small Grants Program for the designation.
- Author: Grace Nguyen-Sovan Dean
When looking to improve a region's wildfire resiliency, considering the impact of neighborhood level action cannot be understated. By tapping into existing community ties, the Tahoe RCD's Network of Fire Adapted Communities (Tahoe Network) program is helping increase the number of Tahoe Basin homeowners taking proactive, educated steps toward wildfire preparedness. The Tahoe Network's multi-pronged approach utilizes information distribution and community organizing to support neighborhoods who are taking steps, both small and large, towards preparedness. “It's a team thing, for projects of this nature,” Jason Brand, Tahoe RCD FAC director notes. “Communities as a whole need to take action.”
When neighborhoods connect with Brand and his team to become a Tahoe Network ‘Fire Adapted Community Neighborhood', they join a supportive network of preparedness-minded homeowners and professionals. With Tahoe RCD assistance, Fire Adapted Community neighborhoods encourage individuals to take preparedness action through hosting events like defensible space and home hardening workdays. The RCD also facilitates neighborhood information sharing through a combination of online and in person communication, so that neighborhoods are kept up to date on actionable items, regional prescribed fire and fuel reduction projects, and more.
Since wildfire preparedness is an ongoing process, an energized base of homeowners is essential to the Tahoe Network's efforts. “You could be done with a defensible space project, then a storm comes through and blows pine needles onto your roof,” Brand illustrates. “It's a process, but we try to keep everyone excited.”
One way the Tahoe Network maintains community interest is through their program's group of Neighborhood Leaders. Neighborhood Leaders disseminate educational resources, host defensible space workdays, and help maintain momentum around wildfire awareness. Any resident interested in spearheading neighborhood preparedness projects is encouraged to become a Neighborhood Leader, with Brand noting how “some have already done their defensible space work and want to reach more of the community, and some are just getting introduced to these concepts because they got a call from their insurance agency.” When looking to increase their knowledge base or get ideas for community events, Neighborhood Leaders can turn to the Tahoe Living with Fire website, which hosts a resource library specifically to support Neighborhood Leader activities. The Living With Fire site itself is a collaborative effort, run by University of Nevada, Reno Extension yet utilized as an information hub by many other organizations. This website is also where Brand points anyone curious about wildfire preparedness, as it houses a variety of booklets and fact sheets that guide beginners into becoming ‘ember aware'.
Though the ongoing work may seem daunting, Brand shares there has been a marked increase in neighborhoods seeking to improve their wildfire readiness within the Basin. There are now 72 Fire Adapted Community neighborhoods, and over the past two years the region's number of nationally recognized Firewise communities jumped from 12 to 34, with 6 more seeking recognition. This is a tangible indicator to Brand that more neighborhoods are serious about organizing local preparedness efforts: “There's a lot of steps that communities need to take to become Firewise. You have to keep people talking, learning, and taking action.”
Making learning approachable is something Brand sees as key to ensuring more residents can make informed, confident choices to protect their home. “Just having a citizenship educated on the pressures our ecosystem is experiencing has a direct effect on the forest,” Brand states. “When people start protecting their home, there is inherently less pressure on our forests.”
Forest landowners and community members in El Dorado, Nevada, and Placer counties interested in learning more about forest management are encouraged to register for the next UC ANR Forest Stewardship workshop series. The Tahoe Basin Forest Stewardship workshop will cover forest management planning, forest and fire ecology, and forest health, and more. Sign up here. Registration is $60, and scholarship funding for registration fee is available. For questions, please contact kcingram@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Caddie M Bergren
He opted for adding deep root irrigation, which can be attached to his existing dripline. Instead of a traditional drip emitter at the soil surface, he added a buried vertical rod with holes in it, buried about 24 inches deep, with two such rods next to each tree. When asked why he chose this method, Mr. Athwal says, “In the 2020-2022 drought, we were struggling to put enough water on our trees to meet their peak demand. Water was very expensive and the cost to drill a well was also very expensive. Deep Root Irrigation (DRI) offered us an ability to meet the trees demand but with a water savings ranging from 20-30%. In CA, water is gold and DRI helps us use this vital resource more wisely.“
Additionally, as part of his SWEEP grant, he added a variable frequency drive (VFD) to his existing irrigation pump. This will allow him to save energy by varying the amount of energy used by the pump when irrigating different-sized fields. He also installed a weather station with 7 moisture sensors throughout the field, which are tied into an automated system that he can control on his phone. This means he can remotely check on moisture levels throughout the field, and schedule irrigation sets only when necessary. This can be especially helpful in the spring as temperatures are rising, the soil surface appears dry but there can still be plenty of moisture down the soil profile.
As we visited his fields, what you mainly notice are the tall rows of cover crop in between his tree rows. He says, “I'd spoken to a lot of farmers who had used cover crops and couldn't wait to tell me about the benefits that this practice offered. When it comes to farming, my mentality has always been farm the ground as if you will farm it forever. Soil health is a major part of that and when I learned of others positive experiences with cropping, I wanted to try it myself.”
He teamed up with the local RCD to participate in their Conservation Innovation Grant and try cover cropping on some of his fields. Since then, he has expanded the practice to 80% of his fields and plans to continue. Nav says he “saw first hand the difference cover cropping made with respect to water infiltration, breaking up hard dirt, filling cracked dirt, creating a habitat for beneficials, increasing organic matter and the list goes on."
Both deep root irrigation and cover cropping can be a big adjustment. His advice to growers who want to try either practice is, “Start small. Test it out on a block, make sure it works for you and then you can expand from there. For DRI, the hardest thing to get right is the installation. Make sure you have a crew that understands the installation process and doesn't cut corners. As for cover crop, work with Project ApisM...they are a great resource! “
“As farmers, our job is to produce quality food for the world while preserving natural resources to the best of our ability. We're stewards of the land, water, soil etc. and finding ways to preserve these resources not only help the environment and our neighbors, but our overall economics as well.”
If you are interested in the SWEEP program or have questions, click here to contact a technical service provider near you.