ABOUT
In Spanish, tierra means earth. Part of our work at Baole is about increasing the number of institutional frameworks for change, and the Tierra program represents this best by connecting students with our earth and what it means to grow hyper-local, culturally relevant food on the land around us.
In the Tierra program, students from historically marginalized communities come together to address food sovereignty from seed to harvest. Through this year-long program, students will explore how ethnic identities have shaped access to and distribution of food over time and its subsequent impacts on the environment.
Here's how we do it:
Campus survey
Each year, we email campus listservs with a survey that gauges what culturally-relevant crops students would like to see grown. Given the survey results, we select the plants to be grown for each season with careful attention to the benefits each crop provides to the soil.
Open Garden Hours
Students will be invited to examine their own cultures’ farming practices and implement them by creating a community-based ethnic food garden that grows a wide variety of ingredients and spices commonly used in ethnic cooking. While tending to their crops, students will learn about small-scale agriculture and traditional farming practices, comparing and contrasting them with industrial practices through the lenses of biodiversity, sustainability, and nutrition. After each iteration of this year-long program, students will leave with a better understanding of the food system at large, a greater respect and connection to the land, and a new perspective of the sustainable food movement, particularly in how it can become more equitable, inclusive, and accessible to those from all social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
Produce access
The diverse set of crops will be used for students to cook and experiment with through the Kuvumbua fellowship program, and the surplus will also be distributed to East Palo Alto families, who often face food insecurity. Students on campus will also have access to the produce for cooking in their dorms.
In the Tierra program, students from historically marginalized communities come together to address food sovereignty from seed to harvest. Through this year-long program, students will explore how ethnic identities have shaped access to and distribution of food over time and its subsequent impacts on the environment.
Here's how we do it:
Campus survey
Each year, we email campus listservs with a survey that gauges what culturally-relevant crops students would like to see grown. Given the survey results, we select the plants to be grown for each season with careful attention to the benefits each crop provides to the soil.
Open Garden Hours
Students will be invited to examine their own cultures’ farming practices and implement them by creating a community-based ethnic food garden that grows a wide variety of ingredients and spices commonly used in ethnic cooking. While tending to their crops, students will learn about small-scale agriculture and traditional farming practices, comparing and contrasting them with industrial practices through the lenses of biodiversity, sustainability, and nutrition. After each iteration of this year-long program, students will leave with a better understanding of the food system at large, a greater respect and connection to the land, and a new perspective of the sustainable food movement, particularly in how it can become more equitable, inclusive, and accessible to those from all social, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
Produce access
The diverse set of crops will be used for students to cook and experiment with through the Kuvumbua fellowship program, and the surplus will also be distributed to East Palo Alto families, who often face food insecurity. Students on campus will also have access to the produce for cooking in their dorms.