Author: Kelsey Longmuir
FEAST, or Food, Energy And Sustainability Team, is a new club on campus, started this spring by co-founders Elissa Chandler (junior) and Saul Sutcher (sophomore). The club’s main objectives are learning about sustainable, local and organic food through hands-on experiences, and teaching Oxy students about the cultural, environmental and economic impacts of food.
Sutcher and Chandler began the club to address what they recognize as a growing necessity for sources of fresh and sustainable produce. “My little brother goes to a public middle school with a huge garden which provides healthy food and promotes food awareness,” Sutcher said. “The Market Place orders produce from Sysco, which is a mass food supplier.”
At the forefront of FEAST’s projects is starting a student-run garden on campus. Club members are currently learning what an organic garden entails, and choosing their first month’s plantings. Despite potential barriers, FEAST is confident that the garden will soon become a reality. “Basically the garden is going to happen. We have solid faculty backing and a ton of student support,” Chandler said. FEAST is currently looking for funding from the Sustainability Fund, ASOC and from UEP 247, Environmental Problem Solving, and is working with Facilities in hopes of securing a piece of land for the garden.
UEP Professor and Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI), Robert Gottlieb, is a strong supporter of FEAST. “This is a terrific initiative and will help to further increase a crucial type of environmental literacy for the campus,” Gottlieb said. “There are lots of barriers to successfully initiate (and particularly to maintain) a community garden on campus, but it’s ultimately well worth the challenge.”
Sutcher and Chandler are developing other avenues for FEAST members to broaden their awareness through hands-on experience. “We want to have a chicken coop, which we could use both as a source of quick compost to create viable soil, and to support the production of free-range eggs,” Sutcher said.
In addition to venturing out into the Los Angeles area and taking field trips to farmer’s markets, Sutcher and Chandler also hope to bring those who specialize in food awareness and sustainability to campus. “We want to bring in speakers who we would sponsor and make available to the entire campus,” Sutcher said. “There is a huge L.A. food industry, and a lot of people who would be willing to come.”
Another project that FEAST plans to pursue is the distribution of produce grown in its garden. The inspiration for this project was provided by Chandler’s internship with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an organization that distributes weekly boxes of organic produce to people’s houses.
“We want to deliver boxes of fresh, organic produce grown in the garden to students and staff,” Chandler said. “The program would mainly be directed at students living off-campus, giving them an organic and sustainable alternative to the produce they are buying at Super A. It would also raise awareness around seasonality. Most people don’t even know when tomatoes are in season.”
A more long-term, overarching goal of FEAST is to raise awareness about sustainable, healthy food in the Eagle Rock community. “[Ultimately], we want to maintain FEAST over the summer and have members run camps for local Eagle Rock kids, educating them through gardening and tasting,” Sutcher said.
There is currently no Eagle Rock community garden, and another possibility to engage community members would be to section of a space of the garden for Eagle Rock residents.
“A challenge we face is that projects like creating a garden come and go with student interest. We’ve tried to counteract that by making a club,” Sutcher said. “75 students signed up at Club Day, and probably 30 to 40 percent of those students were first-years. It is important for us [that what we do] lasts beyond the scope of our careers here.”
The first official meeting will be held Thursday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Johnson 204. For more information about the club, e-mail Feastoxy@gmail.com.
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