Thursday, October 16, 2008

October 14th Meeting Notes

Meeting Notes – 10/14

Liz got an email asking SSA if we want to hook up with Ag Sciences. This person should come to our meeting and let us know details and specifics.

Olive pick – there is a berkeley olive pick but Luis/Sean is not going to lead Davis olive pick. Does someone want to head that. Also, Mike is not going to press olives for other people. UC Davis does have its own olive press. Will the olive press people be okay with us picking UCD olives. Alida might lead it up. Maggie will ask Alida to head it up. Ask Sean the process he went through.

Cookbook sale on Friday – Thank you Mark for making sure we got in! It was fun and nice. Handouts and cookbooks were printed with a decent Kinko's discount. Sold 10 cookbooks and net profited 55 bucks with cookbooks left over to sale. Paige will put photos on blog site.

LOCAL FOOD WEEK

Tuesday-

Co-op Garden Tour 12-1

Prop 2 Talk 6pm in Veihmyer 212

Michael Gregger – will also be on Local Dirt

Looking for another person to represent other side.

Wednesday

10-2 Farmer's Market – Student Farm – Katie will do poster and Dani will give them a stack of fliers.

4:30-8:00 Farm to College

Table at two locations.

Segundo and Tercero – At least four tablers total. Cool Eating Cards and Recipes and Big Green poster for Segundo. Two baskets of student farm produce. Digital cameras-liz, katie, paige, comment cards, costumes, release forms/sign saying this will be put on rfc, slogan, veggie stamps.

We don't want to be too demanding but we don't want to say that the food system is perfect.

More Real Food Now

More Real Food

I Heart Real Food

Real Food Please

What's Real Food?

I support Real Food

I'm taking the Real Food Challenge!

Co Ho Celebrate Real Food

Examples for CoHo

Examples Dining Services

plus comment card

Segundo

Amber, Maggie, Jen, Little bit of Liz

Tercero

Lenin, Paige, Katie?, Alida?

Thursday

12-2 coho taste and table and comment cards – Mary Strange Mu Auxilliary Services for a table set up right outside hot food line – Paige – cameras, veggie suits, cut up old paper and bring cool pens. taste test – for free from student farm, reserve veggies from SF&D – nominate katie and amber – talk to raul to see if we can get produce from student farm/purchase from farmer's market – we can volunteer to pick it. get popcorn and test it to make sure it pops – dani will test popcorn. get the produce to them Thursday morning.

5:30 S,F,&D Bowley -

$50 dollars for S, F &D

Field house if it rains.

How much ampage do you need?

Katie said she would make rice and beans.

Liz will get dishes and silverware.

Jen will help wash.

7:00 King Corn/popcorn – Liz will deal King Corn

Amber needs to tell SSA action.

Don't print more seasonality charts until talking to Mark.

UC Davis Celebration Banquet and SSA!!

On the evening of October 10th, 2008 Students for Sustainable Agriculture and the Student Farm tabled at the UC Davis Celebration Banquet for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences!! The event was beautiful, with a huge Farmer's Market display and catered food.

SSA would like to give a special thanks to Mark Van Horn and the Student Farm for involving SSA in the banquet! SSA was the ONLY student organization at the event and with the help of the Student Farm, SSA was an important part of the banquet! Our table was right across from the Farmer's Market display, and everyone who came in walked right by our table! It was great to "show-up" SSA and the Student Farm at such a nice event!

Another thanks to Katie and Ethan for helping table! It was a fun night, and we all got to eat some yummy food and get a bag of veggies from the Farmer's Market display! Thanks to Carrie Cloud for all her help, and everyone else who was involved! The event was a great success!

SSA not only handed out our Cool Eating Tips, we also sold our cookbooks! We sold a total of TEN and all the proceeds go toward SSA and future activities. Yeay!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Meeting Notes from September 30th, 2008

SSA Meeting Notes 9/30/08
permanent meeting time is Tuesdays at 6:30
need to contact Teresa Costa to reserve a room and have her contact custodial services > Maggie’s on it
Dani’s managing the listserv
Amber is still the treasurer? Paige will check.
Paige picks up mail
We are invited to the Berkeley Olive Fest next month (no date known)
SSA stuff will be kept in the field house from now on
Paige will take inventory of fliers and get more copies if needed
Events
Michael Greger to speak on Prop 2
On Oct 21st in the afternoon/evening
Need to reserve a room, a small one
Maybe a debate? If that’s ok with him
Prop 2: farm safety and cruelty act, supports local farms, ensures animals have a certain ammt of space, bad for factory farms!
Fall Local Food Week
Need to start working on it now
Close to farm to college night (Oct 22nd)?
Committee: Maggie, Liz, Jenn, Katie, Paige…
UCD Centennial
Weekend of Fri Oct. 11th
They want to sell our cookbooks
Don’t know if we can sell them/table
Sac community garden
We are wanted to help design and build a community garden at an appt. complex in Sac
People reluctant to adopt project, very labor intensive
Cosponsor Beehive Collective event?
It is a group of artists who do interactive, politically charged art installation and travel all over the world to present them
Need some money, maybe 50-100 dollars?
SSA has supported them in the past
Rainbow is the contact person, Alida will contact here
Oct 16, Enviro Club Showcase
Event to showcase enviro clubs on campus
In the evening time, in Geidt hall, contact Brian Seaby
CSSC Convergence
Oct 24-26 at SFSU
Info about it will go out on listserv
Farm to College Night
Oct 22nd
Real Food Challenge
this is the Real Food Challenge Month of Action!
lets stack that with Farm to College night
comment card campaign at dining facilities on campus
event at Market Garden?
Cant have true potluck: cant serve homecooked food to random public
We can have music outside, speakers inside
Can go thru co-ho for catering (give them raw materials and have them prep for a small fee)
Movie on the quad? Potato sack races? Fun ag activities?
Local foods week group will talk more in depth about these events
ANNOUNCEMENTS
student farm potluck next Tuesday
Hoes down this weekend, go!
Project Compost is awesome, volunteer meetings are in the MU basement, room MU 43, on Mondays at 6pm. Come on down!
Idea about using community currency in Davis (Brandon will do more research. Did I get your name right?)

Thanks for note taking Liz!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

WOW Resource Fair

On Tuesday September 16th, SSA and The Student Farm joined together in a joint recruitment effort at the Graduate Resource Fair! The tabling went very smoothly, and we had a lot of traffic. A great big thanks to all those who helped out, especially Mark, Ann, Christie, and Aubrey! It was tons of fun, and both SSA and The Student Farm received lots of new recruiters! Welcome to all the new SSA members! Whether you come to meetings, or just utilize our great list serve, we are glad to have you.

Monday, September 15, 2008

September!

Hello all! I hope you've all been having fantastic, adventure-filled and restful summers. It's time to welcome in the new year and SSA encourages you to check back here periodically for updates and events.

Cheers!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Envisioning...

... a look back at this year's SSA highlights and ideas for the coming year.

Focus the Nation

Working as a subcommittee branched off of the main SSA group worked really well.

We did a good job outreaching and getting people on the listserve to participate.

This was a high profile event that garnered a lot of attention

We should distinguish ourselves more from the Sodexho booth (people thought we were the same! yikes!)

Tools we used for this event are being used for other events (the cool eating poster/cards)

Suggestion: Have the professional talks at the same place the booths were

Picnic Day

Tshirt/cookbooks fundraising, though not much money was made

Good outreach, but many people were not from Davis

We should try sharing a booth with other student orgs. (i.e. project compost, student farm, etc.)

Forgo this event, if we are lacking in time and energy

Local Foods Week

A lot of work, so we should have a subcommittee to plan this as early as January and not just one wonderwoman (i.e. Dani). and use some ASI grant money to pay people as an incentive

Went well with a variety of activities, FREE FOOD worked better than movies

Movies still a good idea but not for the amount of money – maybe just one movie

Highlight social justice issues – CIRS do a panel (maybe for ESLP). Instead of having a normal tabling event at the Taste of Coho, we could feature a social justice booth here to get more attention.

Whole Earth

A lot of activities back to back right before WEF

We need to get a better spot next year – by the stage?

The only reason we made money is because we were able to sell strawberries (bought from Capay Organic) to tri coops.

It would have been nice to have people manning the booth both days

Good to have stamps

Get really big posters to be more visible

If we do it for two days we will need to ask the CoHo for cold storage

We have to take responsibility for baskets (ask people to bring them back, or just sell them in paper bags)

Grant proposal

Alida and Luis wrote it

Student Farm/CoHo Poster project – part way done (check it out at the Coho!)

zine – on hold until Alida's thesis

art show – kelly wants to help out

we didn't actually get the money in our account but they are straightening it out

think about future sustainability grants for future funding

olive pick

Went great -- a lot of people came out

potluck afterwards should be in a more public place for people who might not know other people

ask Sean to write a “How to coordinate an Olive Pick”

citrus gleaning

Christy organized it and put it in the enterprise

find citrus trees and ask neighbors to come pick food

Ask Christy to add the letter to the smart site and write a “how to citrus glean”

house was volunteered for cooking and some citrus goods were returned

action research team

Going well

suggestion: eslp could plan local foods week through an ART

local dirt

we need new co hosts

dani is considering do it

rori is leaving

natalie will continue

first meeting of the year/quarters

maggie found it on a flyer at the co op

outreaching on list serv

davis wiki

we had a potluck and a student farm tour

we want more student farm workers involved

invite ASI out there

guide to publicizing an event

sustainability coordinators at dorms

talking to grad advisors for CRD, ECL and IAD

Blog

SSA blog is getting updated regularly for agenda items, pictures, news and event updates

Amber will continue working on it

Eat Local

There is a website on where to purchase locally

Overall/General

Have an orientation session on how to:

Reserve rooms for events

Add to SSA davis wiki

Add to SSA list serv and Smartsite

Food Systems ActionResearch Team

Is going really well. Want to continue into next year as part of SSA.

2. Next Year

Next year we could do an independent research to get credit for the continuation of the ART team. Maybe Ryan could sign off on independent study. ASI.

Real Food Challenge

Real Food Challenge is a way to build solidarity with other sustainable ag work across the country. Leadership training in Arroye Grande in late July. Want to send 2 or 3 people. Perhaps cover transportation with ASI funds. Want to work with RFC next year.

Other projects

Slow Foods Project – Could be the more enjoyment piece of SSA

i.e. collaborate on the olive harvest

Slow Food Conference in San Francisco. Get UC Davis people there.

Canning – Alida might teach a class on canning. Paige is interested in a canning activity too

Outreach brainstorm (email list serv, facebook, participatory activity on the quad with FREE food, flyering – besides school building – co op, farmer's market (?), delta, mishka's, newspapers (aggie and enterprise) lyra halperin – will write a press release and send things, signs at bowley, student farm, co ops, dining commons, co ho little table fliers, spac club days – go be out there and table, davis wiki, table at the DC, go to the core classes for grad groups, ryan's food systems class

SPAC positions

paige for president

someone for treasurer (list serv)

have a facilitating techniques class if club gets bigger

we like having non hierarchial governing structure

Critical activism work vs. socially accepted education presentations

We do want to incorporate more activism work. We think the ART this year is part of that and the Real Food Challenge for next year. We want to continue to push the envelope.

In the past SSA made a concerted effort to be on important committees at all time – made us seem big but at the same time we need the student body standing behind us. We need to get student demand through more education = Real Food Challenge

Glad to have representation on the ASI steering committee

rally for foods – thinking about collaborating with project compost and/or critical mass

SSA is going to vary and change by who is at the table

We should have a visioning after we get new recruitments to create a space for self empowerment.

also think of simple tasks for people to have responsibility for.

we like the idea of breaking off into smaller teams to do different things

having positions (not hierarchial) that people are responsible for to make sure things get done. i.e. listserv person, flyering person, davis wiki person, etc. everyone can take initiative, don't need to ask permission to do what one is interested in.

fate of the CCE website – great idea – someone needs to take that on.

sean can pass the baton of treasurer if someone signs up before he leaves (august)

get extra credit points to go to one of our presentations – i.e. kick off meeting

Think about our overlap with CSSC and ESLP. We could collaborate more?








Monday, May 19, 2008

Envisioning Meeting TODAY

SSA is having its envisioning meeting today 6pm at Bowley (potluck first, then discussion). Come by and discuss what we've accomplished this year, what we could work on and what we should plan for the next year.



To kind of prep ourselves for the meeting we can refresh our memory about our mission...


.....To realize our mission (and vision) we employ the following methods:
  • Connect communities through the celebration of food

  • Integrate practice and theory to promote ecosystem and human health

  • Empower students

  • Utilize local resources and knowledge

  • Support both interdisciplinary and experiential education

  • Advocate research pertinent to sustainable agriculture

  • Stimulate innovative and accessible public outreach in the greater community

  • Facilitate discussion among diverse viewpoints and perspectives

  • Support the greater community of farmers, farm workers, and consumers

Projects: past, current and on-going

  • Development of curriculum for new UCD Sustainable Agriculture major

  • UCD/Davis Sustainable Ag directory

  • Farm-to-College

  • Campus Food System Sustainability Project ~ check out our Participatory Action Research Summary and Workbook!!

  • Community outreach (website, sustainable agriculture poster displays, attending events, fact sheets etc.)

  • Recruitment, network building and strategic planning

  • Alternatives in Sustainable Agriculture lecture series planning

  • Local Dirt! A public affairs radio show focused on agrifood system issues.

  • Slow Foods USA convivium
  • Real Food Challenge
  • Focus the National
  • Local Foods Week


Hope to see you at 6pm tonight!