Below are just a few examples of how members of the FARE Partnership are working on food access and research issues with many groups in the local community.
NEW IN FALL 2012! STOCKSCH 297 NR: Nuestras Raíces Community Farming and Food Security
Fall 2012 offers an exciting opportunity for UMass Amherst students to get their hands dirty while learning about topics ranging from the history of Holyoke to community food systems. Students enrolled in STOCKSCH 297 NR: Nuestras Raíces Community Farming and Food security will receive two credits as part of a service-learning practicum course where they attend several seminars on campus and work at the Nuestras Raícesfarm in nearby Holyoke.
Nuestras Raíces is a grassroots nonprofit that promotes cultural, economic and community development in Holyoke, Mass., through projects relating to food, agriculture and the environment. The Farm (La Finca) was born out of a participatory community planning process in which Holyoke community gardeners expressed a desire to grow food not only for themselves but for a market. Located at 24 Jones Ferry Road in Holyoke, La Finca houses a beginning farmers training program, provides plots of land and small loans to community members, and welcomes visitors to a farm store, gift shop and petting zoo.
For additional information about the course, email Carol Soules, associate director of the UMass Office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning (CESL).
Community Food Systems Course
In fall 2012, students from the Stockbridge School’s Community Food Systems course interviewed eight Nuestras Raíces gardeners from five community gardens to determine the value of those gardens to the community and to compile input on developing a record-keeping system to track quantities of produce grown and distributed to neighbors. Ana Maria Velasquez and Jonathan Ward, master’s candidates at the Center for Public Policy and Administration, led the interview project. It was just one of several community engagement components of the course, which is taught by Catherine Sands and which examines the movement of food from seed to table through a lens of social justice. Central to the course is an examination of the opportunities and challenges required in making equitable community food projects that create lasting systems change.
Food Insecurity and Mental Health among Cambodian Women in Lowell, Mass.
Lorraine Cordeiro, assistant professor of nutrition at UMass Amherst, studies food security and the connections between high-risk health behaviors and hunger in multiple social and cultural contexts. Cordeiro’s project in Lowell, Mass., assessed food security and its association with dietary practices among pregnant and postpartum Cambodian women. Cambodian refugees from the Khmer Rouge genocide of the last century continue to suffer from poverty and trauma, and one consequence of this long-term suffering is food insecurity that has been linked to maternal depression and nutritional deficiencies among women of reproductive age.
Using qualitative and quantitative research techniques, Cordeiro and her team are testing these associations among Cambodian residents in Massachusetts and examining the consumption of traditional medicinal teas during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Findings from Cordeiro’s community-based research will not only contribute basic knowledge about public health and nutrition, it will assist in designing culturally appropriate health education programs for women in Lowell and other Cambodian refugee communities.
Photovoice and Farm to School in Holyoke, Mass.
For the past 16 months, Professor Krista Harper (CPPA/anthropology), Catherine Sands (UMass lecturer and fertile ground director), Molly Totman (VISTA volunteer and UMass alumna), and Diego Angarita (Nuestras Raíces assistant director) have collaborated on a Photovoice project with a group of youth leaders from Nuestras Raíces, an economic and community development organization in Holyoke, Mass.
Photovoice is a research method that places cameras in the hands of youth so that they can document their concerns and perspectives directly. The project has addressed the following question: How does youth activism in efforts to change the food system shape their experience of public participation and citizenship? The youth group conducted a participatory evaluation of farm-to-school efforts in partnership with university and community groups, including the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council. Students photographed the path of fresh produce grown on the Nuestras Raíces urban farm to the school lunch plate, and presented their pictures and interviews to the Holyoke School Committee in an effort to show policymakers that students want to eat healthy food at school. Their collaborative research aimed to illuminate the students’ impressions of public policy, active citizenship, care for the land and community that have arisen out of farm-to-school programs.
As one participant stated, “Evaluation gives me a chance to speak up and make change.” Project directors and participants are collaboratively editing a peer-reviewed article for the Community Development Journal as an intergenerational group, and Nuestras Raíces high school youth visited two classes at UMass to present their findings.
A YouTube video about the project is available.
UMass Library Food Systems Guide
UMass librarian Madeleine Charney has produced a guide to resources about food systems for use by students, faculty and the community across the Five College area. The guide contains references and links to not only books and articles, but also information about UMass projects related to food (e.g., the award-winning permaculture garden), food systems courses across the Five College system, jobs and internships, and even movies related to local food issues! To learn more, visit the UMass Food Systems Guide.