Community Engagement

Since 2014, we’ve hosted dozens of events, forums, summits, and symposiums with thousands of attendees spanning a wide range of occupations and affiliations. Our events allow people to become empowered with a more nuanced and research backed understanding of our food system with clear actionable next steps to stay tapped into the good food movement.

In 2021, Berkeley Food Institute in collaboration with the UC Gill Tract Community Farm hosted two separate weekend short courses on Urban Agroecology and Herbal Medicine & Allyship. Community Farmers at the Gill Tract stepped up and co-led courses to connect East Bay residents to the land, to our plant relatives, and larger international food sovereignty movements. 

We are an ardent supporter of urban agriculture. In 2020, students organized and launched Berkeley Student Farms, a coalition of seven student-led garden and farm spaces on the UC Berkeley campus. To provide institutional support to Berkeley Student Farms, we staff a full time Agroecology and Wellness Coordinator to serve as a technical and skill-building mentor for students and the land.

From 2015 to 2021, the “Building Equitable and Inclusive Food Systems at UC Berkeley” project brought together hundreds of collaborators from across campus to bridge the gaps between our campus food system and the communities it serves. The project resulted in the democratically-produced, dynamic Foodscape Map of UC Berkeley campus.

Our food system operates better when we have well trained, well compensated, adaptable, and motivated workers. Since 2017, we have hosted annual career panels to connect our campus community to various career pathways in food systems.

In 2022, we reignited a research community roundtable called to discuss latest developments, opportunities, and social, economic, and ecologically implications of tech in agriculture in order to create long-term research and educational partnerships that adhere to community-based participatory research principles and practices. Our focus is to promote appropriate, just, and equitable ag tech in higher education, on farms, and for workers throughout the food system.