CalEPA awards Environmental Justice to Sacred Heart Community Services and Chris Bacon
Support for training, research, and infrastructure of food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners to transform food waste
Funded by a $50,000 CalEPA Environmental Justice Small Grants Award, Sacred Heart Community Services (SHCS) will partner with Chris Bacon and SCU’s Environmental Justice and Common Good Initiative’s Food and Climate Justice program to advance food justice in the South Bay by employing research-based agroecology techniques to reduce food waste, produce compost, and improve the sustainability of emergency food assistance programs. Project partners will conduct interviews and surveys, and review the best practices to inform the creation of five community-oriented educational workshops, facilitate leadership development opportunities for backyard gardeners and pantry volunteers, and a replicable resource guide for food pantries and urban gardeners. Sacred Heart is the lead agency, with an $11,429 sub-award going to Chris Bacon to guide the research component, and hire student research assistants as they partner with Sacred Heart’s Food Pantry as well as their La Mesa Verde community gardening program to co-develop a community-based food justice approach.
Fernando Fernandez Levia (last on left), La Mesa Verde Program Manager at Sacred Heart Community Services, speaking at the Climate and Environmental Justice Conference 4/28/23.
Fernando Fernandez Levia (last on left), La Mesa Verde Program Manager at Sacred Heart Community Services, speaking at the Climate and Environmental Justice Conference 4/28/23.