Skip to main content
Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative

Food and Climate Justice

  1. Home
  2. Environmental Justice Initiative
  3. Programs
  4. Food and Climate Justice
Food and Climate Justice Program

Food and Climate Justice

Through Santa Clara University’s Agroecology, Climate Resilience, & Food Justice Lab, we collaborate with community partners in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, California, and Central America on research that empowers civil society, farmers, and governments to develop food justice responses to hunger, vulnerability, and economic insecurity, and to build resilience to climate change and other hazards. We work with community-based groups, farmer cooperatives, universities, local governments, and nonprofits to design, diversify, and evaluate their agricultural and food security programs. We use agroecology and participatory approaches to improve health and environmental outcomes.

Contact: Chris Bacon  

Food and Climate Events   

Food and Climate Publications 

  • Projects

  • A Place-Based Food Justice Curriculum in the South San Francisco Bay Area

    We have formed a transdisciplinary team of academics, students, and staff from community-based organizations to design a comprehensive, hybrid online and in-person curriculum. Through design workshops with the South Bay Food Justice Collaborative, we structured the course into six modules that directly address the goals of the County of Santa Clara’s Food System Workplan. We are currently recording videos, developing content, and beginning to design both a public version and a specialized internal training program for the County's 24,000 employees, supported by the County’s Learning & Employee Development team.

    SCU Participants: Christopher Bacon, Maria Eugenia Flores Gomez, student researchers 

    Partners: South Bay Food Justice Collaborative, University of California Extension, and Veggielution (lead partners); Valley Verde, Fresh Approach, Sacred Heart Community Services, and faculty and staff from San Jose State University and Stanford University

    Funder: Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program

    For more information:

     

  • Santa Clara County Food Systems Equity and Resilience

    A SCU research team is collaborating with two nonprofits to strengthen food worker-owned cooperatives and small-scale food enterprises in East San Jose. The team is also conducting research to support local institutions, such as hospitals and universities, in implementing values-based procurement strategies (such as the Good Food Purchasing Program). The SCU team also organized a short course on agroecology, urban agriculture, and cooperative food systems, supported participatory monitoring and evaluation, analyzed data, and involved community members in co-creating a food systems data dashboard as a civic education tool for food system change.

    SCU Participants: Christopher Bacon, Maria Eugenia Flores Gomez, and multiple student researchers, alumni, colleagues, and partners

    Partners: Veggielution (primary), Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI)

    Funder: The County of Santa Clara, through the Office of the County Executive for Food Systems Resiliency Grant Program

    For more information:

     

     

  • A Food Justice Response to Covid-19 in California

    Faculty, students, farms and food aid organizations in the Bay Area collaborated to draw lessons from the pandemic about how to improve emergency food assistance and create a more just food system. 

    SCU Participants: Chris Bacon and multiple student co-authors

    Partners: Fresh Approach, Pie Ranch

    Funders: The Lawrence Foundation, Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education

    For more information: