Tucked away on Occidental’s campus is an organic garden, a brood of chickens and a dedication to community and sustainability. This green space is the Food, Energy and Sustainability Team (FEAST) Garden, located below Occidental’s Urban and Environmental Planning (UEP) House.
Frankie Vega (senior) is the director of FEAST as well as the organization’s Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) liaison. According to Vega, FEAST is a student-run garden that takes care of chickens, mitigates waste, grows native plants, hosts educational workshops and facilitates a cafeteria-to-compost program.
“[FEAST is about] uplifting student voices and bringing experts of the field into our space to help students and community members learn more about sustainability and environmental justice,” Vega said.
Rosa Romero is FEAST’s faculty advisor and program director for Occidental’s UEP Institute. According to Romero, FEAST’s intention is to give students and community members a welcoming space to learn hands-on ways to combat environment issues.
“We as humans and those in urban environments get really disconnected from nature,” Romero said. “Being a part of FEAST, or even just coming to any of the garden spaces we help curate, really connects people back with [the] earth and with meaningful connections with themselves and other species […] you can learn a lot from books, but when you’re actually touching soil, that’s a different experience.”
According to Vivian Anderson (junior), working in the garden is energizing.
“My favorite thing about FEAST is being able to have a job as a student worker where I can come be outside and feel connected to nature,” Anderson said. “It’s very refreshing.”
According to Romero, FEAST was created in 2009 by a group of Occidental students. At the time, they were learning about food justice and saw an opportunity to learn what it meant to grow their own food. Using the grassy area in front of UEP which had previously been used solely for events, they started FEAST as a volunteer-based sustainability club. Since then, FEAST has become a student organization with paid employees.
Romero said the majority of FEAST’s budget, which is allotted from ASOC, goes to paying workers.
“We’re really valuing the people that are creating the space,” Romero said.
To be able to pay workers adequately while still affording supplies and stipends for visiting experts, FEAST takes donations and uses gardening strategies to keep costs down.
“We’re trying to do more seed saving and cutting so we don’t have to buy so many plants and can really start growing our own [plants] from seeds and seedlings,” Romero said.
According to Romero and Vega, FEAST also hosts a variety of student-focused volunteer programs for people to take part in, including a “Chicken Tender” program where those interested can come learn how to care for FEAST’s chickens. “Chicken Tenders” can then come to the FEAST Garden at will to care for the chickens.
Romero and Vega said FEAST offers a one credit UEP class at Occidental. In this class, students spend time working at and learning about the garden. Those interested in other parts of the garden can also come for “drop-in” volunteer hours to learn what each FEAST team does. According to the FEAST website, FEAST is open at all times to students and community members.
FEAST holds a range of events throughout the year. Romero and Vega said past events have included natural dye workshops, tea workshops, yoga, bird watching, composting lessons and hosting baby goats. While not all events happen on a regular basis, one consistent event is FEAST’s Feast. Vega said the club makes a meal using plants from the FEAST Garden, with the addition of some food from local farmers and farmers markets.
While FEAST has certainly been growing, even in the past years, according to Romero and Vega, there are many hurdles FEAST faces, particularly with timing. Occidental is on a strict timeline with the majority of the community only being on campus for roughly four months at a time — plants, compost and chickens need work year-round. According to Romero, the work of caring for the chickens and the garden often comes down to one or two people during breaks.
“More funding would be my wish because [that would enable] us to compensate all community members and all those who are advocating for us,” Vega said. “I wish we could give so much more to those who work with us.”
According to Romero, as a student service, FEAST has to operate on a timeline that adheres with Occidental protocols. While FEAST readily welcomes new ideas, there are steps they have to take to initiate events and changes.
“We want to expand and help out other garden spaces and grow the most amount of food [as possible],” Romero said. “[But] everyone has to be patient with the process to do it in an official capacity.”
Romero said her favorite part of FEAST is getting to see students come to the garden for the first time.
“Sometimes it’ll be a freshman, but sometimes it’ll be a senior who [didn’t] know this was here,” Romero said. “[My favorite part is seeing them] discovering this space and then seeing them at this space more often to study or come to events.”
Contact Ava Anderson at aanderson5@oxy.edu
