The Mendocino Voice caught up with Andrea Brown, the Hopland Scholar for the year 2022-23, and Monica Donegan, who does research on a grant through the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Both are studying Pierce’s Disease in the Almeida Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

DC’s restaurant industry has defeated efforts to raise the minimum wage for restaurant workers before. This year, advocates believe they have a winning campaign.

A grant of more than $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will support a University of California collaboration to improve and expand undergraduate education in organic agriculture, with an emphasis on supporting underrepresented students.

“Black women workers have experienced the most unjust and inequitable economic outcomes possible throughout U.S. history, in times of both crisis and prosperity,” Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage said in a statement. “This Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, Black women are still most likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic or face unprecedented rates of housing and food insecurity.

The overturn of Roe v. Wade left hospitality workers with even fewer healthcare choices—now some industry professionals are fighting back.

"When you put your food on a table and you see that happiness, this is our life.”