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Food Sovereignty Initiative Summit

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6th Annual Tampa Bay Food Sovereignty Initiative Summit

Cultivating a Community for Food Sovereignty Across the Tampa Bay Region

This event is being postponed due to Hurricane Milton. The safety and well-being of our attendees, staff and students is our top priority, and with the uncertainty surrounding the storm, we believe this is the best course of action. We are currently working to reschedule the event and will provide updated details as soon as they are finalized. Be safe. 

Please join us for the 6th Annual Food Sovereignty Initiative Summit   
 
This event will heighten the awareness of the Food Sovereignty Initiative at 欧美三级片, the larger Tampa Bay community, and reinforce the university鈥檚 role as the leading learning, research and community engagement hub for local food advocates in the region. This event brings together students, faculty, local food activists, NFP groups and leaders, government officials, farmers, community gardeners, and the public for robust discussions, educational experiences, and research opportunities. 
 
We look forward to seeing you there! 

Agenda at a Glance

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Kick-off Event  
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  
Location: 欧美三级片 St. Petersburg Campus - University Student Center - 2nd Floor Ballroom 
Address: 200 6th Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 
 
Parking available on the St. Pete campus garage on levels 2 through 4.

Friday, October 11, 2024

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 
Location: 欧美三级片 St. Petersburg Campus - University Student Center - 2nd floor Ballroom 
Address: 200 6th Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701 
 
Parking available on the St. Pete campus garage on levels 2 through 4.

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Time: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. 
Location: 欧美三级片 St. Pete campus -  
 
Parking available in the parking garage on levels 2 through 4.

Registration

Please register for this event by October 7, 2024

* Registration is encouraged and not mandatory. Students are encouraged to register.

Shuttle Services for 欧美三级片 Students

Students are invited to sign up for the 欧美三级片 Shuttle to take to and from the St. Pete campus to see the Keynote Speakers on October 10, 2024.

Departure Time: 4:00 pm
Location: Marshall Student Center (MSC) - Roundabout  

The Shuttle will return to 欧美三级片 Marshall Student Center by 8:30 pm.

Meet Our Speakers

Thursday, October 10

Jesus Flores

Keynote Speaker

Jesus Flores

Elizabeth Marron

Keynote Speaker

Elizabeth 鈥淟iza鈥 Marron

William Schanbacher

Moderator

Will Schanbacher, PhD

Friday, October 11

Lisa Pineda

Lisa Pineda

Nicole Brand

Nicole Brand

Mary Kennedy

Mary Kennedy
Farm Ambassador

Madison Prikryl

Madison Prikryl
Farm Ambassador

Chris Schweighofer

Chris Schweighofer
Student Farmer/Farm Chef/President of the Ethnobotany & Tea Club

David Himmelfarb

David Himmelfarb
Eckerd College Community Farm, Faculty Director, Instructor, Environmental Studies

Dharsh Saravana

Dharsh Saravana
Agrarian Club President

Ameya Singh

Ameya Singh
Agrarian Club Vice President

Speaker Bios

Keynote Speaker 
Jesus Flores

Jesus is from Charcas, S.L.P. Mexico. He grew up in a farming family in Mexico, and he is the third of twelve: eight brothers and three sisters. Early in his life, Jesus learned the importance of healthy and locally grown foods and hard work. His father had a 2-acre garden where he grew many things, like beans, beets, squash, fava beans, cilantro, broccoli, jalape帽o, chili de marrones, carrots, and cauliflower. His father began teaching Jesus and his brother about agriculture at an early age. Jesus brings a great love and knowledge of agriculture to the farm park. He is skilled in vegetable production, irrigation, soil health and caring for bees.

As the RGFP Manager, Jesus applies his extensive farming and agriculture knowledge as well as his other professional experience in business administration, community support, education, and advocacy. Jesus is very passionate about farming. He says, 鈥淲here there is a lot of water, there is a lot of life.鈥 Jesus enjoys conversing with people, hearing their stories, teaching what he has learned along the way, and sharing experiences and risks.

Keynote Speaker  
Elizabeth 鈥淟iza鈥 Marron

Liza Marron is the founding director of the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition in one of Colorado鈥檚 most important agricultural regions. The Coalition works to foster an equitable local food system that restores the health of the people, community, economy and ecosystem. She has been a community organizer with a focus on social justice, wellness and prevention for many years. Ms. Marron has a master鈥檚 degree in Community Counseling and a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in Spanish. Her skill set includes coalition building, grant writing, governance, visioning and strategic planning, non-profit management, finance, and economic development. She was part of a community cohort in 1999 that conducted assessments and founded the Saguache County Sustainable Economic Development (ScSEED). Marron has retired from the SLVLFC and now serves as a Saguache County Commissioner.

She has been a Rocky Mountain Farmers Union member since 2016 and serves as the Secretary of the San Luis Valley Chapter.

Marron lives in Saguache, Colorado with horses, dogs, cat and chickens, her garden and her bicycle.

Moderator 
Will Schanbacher, PhD

William Schanbacher, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at 欧美三级片 and co-founder of the 欧美三级片 Urban Food Sovereignty Group. He is the author of three books and a new book with Whitney Fung, Food Insecurity: A Reference Handbook (Bloomsbury Academic 2023), which addresses the history of food insecurity in the United States through the lens of food sovereignty and food justice. His research and teaching interests concentrate on religious and social ethics, globalization and poverty, and food justice.

Lisa Pineda

Lisa Pineda is the UF/IFAS Family Nutrition Program's Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes Specialist. She comes from a long line of farmers, foragers and educators of diverse backgrounds including Indigenous, African, Spanish, and Middle Eastern roots. Lisa collaborates with multiple entities to align various curricula with innovative sustainability programs, as well as develops partnerships with commercial, municipal and non-profit entities who share common goals and objectives. Current collaborators include Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC), Pinellas County Schools, Edible Peace Patch Project, Deuces Food Forest, Daystar Life Center, Eckerd College, University of South Florida, University of Florida, and City of St. Petersburg.鈥 

Nicole Brand

Nicole Brand holds the first Director of Conservation and Greenspaces position for the State University System of Florida. She oversees the environmental and botanical spaces within the College of Arts and Sciences as a part of the Environmental Conservation Outreach, Research, and Education (ECORE) System. Previously, she served as a founding member of the St. Pete Youth Farm - a partnership between the Pinellas County School Board and the City of St. Petersburg. She secured initial funding for the project, and funding is now sustained as a line item in the City of St. Petersburg's budget. Prior to joining 欧美三级片, she spent seven years with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation working on large landscape conservation as their first Director of Communications and their first Director of Outreach Programs. She holds an MS in Food Systems and Society from Oregon Health and Science University鈥檚 School of Medicine.

Mary Kennedy
Farm Ambassador

My name is Mary Kennedy and I am from Virginia. I am currently a senior Environmental Studies major at Eckerd College. I am a Farm Ambassador鈥痮n the Eckerd College Community Farm, where I facilitate tours and experiential learning while also participating in weekly work on the farm.

Madison Prikryl
Farm Ambassador

My name is Madison PrikryI and I am a junior majoring in environmental studies and minoring in sustainability and coastal management at Eckerd College. As a Student Farm Ambassador at the Eckerd College Community Farm, my main focus is communicating the importance of the farm and its key values to the student body and surrounding community.

Chris Schweighofer
Student Farmer/Farm Chef/President of the Ethnobotany & Tea Club

I work on the Eckerd College Community Farm as a Student Farmer and the Farm Chef.鈥 As Farm Chef, I work to introduce the ingredients we grow to our community members, demonstrating all the ways they can be used and enjoyed. I am also the president of the Ethnobotany & Tea Club, which maintains an ethnobotanical garden on the ECCF and where we grow tea, fruit, and plants of many kinds for the community to enjoy. 

David Himmelfarb
Eckerd College Community Farm, Faculty Director, Instructor, Environmental Studies

Dr. Dave Himmelfarb teaches courses on food, environmental sustainability, and social justice at Eckerd College and is the Faculty Director and co-founder of the Eckerd College Community Farm, where he coordinates educational programs and community outreach. Trained as an environmental anthropologist, Dave has conducted fieldwork on food security and rural livelihoods in Uganda and Vietnam.

Dharsh Saravana
Agrarian Club President

My name is Dharsh Saravana (they/them), and I study Environmental Science and Policy with minors in math and GIS at 欧美三级片. I am the president of the Agrarian club, and I strive to elevate various cultural expressions through food sovereignty. Seed saving is important to my immigrant background, and I鈥檓 currently involved in establishing a seed library at the 欧美三级片 Tampa campus. My activism revolves around showing the 欧美三级片 and the Tampa Bay community that food sovereignty is for everyone through events like the Food Sovereign Farmers Market. I am eager to take my experiences from my activism and explore what food sovereignty looks like as a solution for economically disadvantaged urban populations.

Ameya Singh
Agrarian Club Vice President

My name is Ameya Singh and I'm a junior studying Environmental Science and Policy with a concentration in sustainability. I'm the Vice President of the Agrarian Club and am involved in starting a student-led Seed Library initiative at 欧美三级片. My passion for sustainable agriculture, community resilience, and cultural recognition led to an interest in food sovereignty and seed-saving. Coming to the States, I noticed an immediate disconnect with our food systems. I also struggled to access ethnic crops and foods that suited my lifestyle. These projects and my work mean a lot to me as they aim to repair these issues. The goal is to restore diversity in many forms and give power back to our communities. In the future, I also plan on integrating these ideas into my career and further studies in Agroforestry. 

Event Program

October 10, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

AGENDA

Time Activity
5:30 pm Welcome and Opening Remarks
  Keynote Speakers
 

Audience Q&A

 

Closing Remarks

 

Food, drinks and networking

OCTOBER 11, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

AGENDA

Time Activity
11:00 am Roundtable Discussion and Podcast Trainings
 

Roundtable Discussion 

Collaboration Missteps and Foibles: Not everything goes smoothly in collaboration, but sometimes that's the point!  

Presented by Lisa Pineda and Nicole Brand 

Join us to learn about the dirt we've worked through in our efforts across the food system. We'll share how conflict has led to solutions and deeper connections. This roundtable is a safe space to learn about the richness that can come from mistakes and misunderstandings, and also a space for you to share your own enriching stories in the garden where short-term conflict pain led to greater gains.

 

Podcast Training Morning Sessions 

Session1: Why Podcasting for Food Sovereignty, Q&A and Wrap-up鈥 
Session 2: Planning Your Podcast, Q&A and Wrap-up 

The sessions will be recorded for an audio podcast that will be shared with the participants.鈥 

Participants will learn the basics of podcasting and how to incorporate food sovereignty as a topic and learning how to reach their intended audience through the medium of podcasting, and through the lens of food sovereignty.鈥 

The sessions will be recorded for an audio podcast that will be shared with the participants.鈥 

*15 People may sign up per podcast training session. Participants will be escorted to the Podcast studio at the appropriate time.鈥 

12:00 pm Lunch with Keynote Speakers
1:00 pm

Student Presentations

Listen to 2 student lead presentations and then engage in an audience Q&A.  

鈥淕rowing Minds, Growing Community: Student Engagement on the Eckerd College Community Farm" presented by Dave Himmlefarb with students: Mary Kennedy, Madison Prikryl, Chris Schweighofer 

欧美三级片 Agrarian Club presented by Dharsh Saravana, President and Ameya Singh, Vice President

Followed by audience Q&A

2:00 pm Roundtable Discussion and Podcast Trainings  
 

Roundtable Discussion

Collaboration Missteps and Foibles: Not everything goes smoothly in collaboration, but sometimes that's the point!  

Presented by Lisa Pineda and Nicole Brand 

Join us to learn about the dirt we've worked through in our efforts across the food system. We'll share how conflict has led to solutions and deeper connections. This roundtable is a safe space to learn about the richness that can come from mistakes and misunderstandings, and also a space for you to share your own enriching stories in the garden where short-term conflict pain led to greater gains. 

 

Podcast Training Afternoon Sessions 

Session 3: Creating Your Podcast, Q&A and Wrap-up 
Session 4: Promoting Your Podcast, Q&A and Wrap-up 

Participants will learn the basics of podcasting and how to incorporate food sovereignty as a topic and learning how to reach their intended audience through the medium of podcasting, and through the lens of food sovereignty.鈥 

The sessions will be recorded for an audio podcast that will be shared with the participants.鈥 

*15 People may sign up per podcast training session. Participants will be escorted to the Podcast studio at the appropriate time.

October 12, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 

Please meet on USC Lawn at 9:00 a.m. (near the bollards in front鈥痮f the USC ) 
The tour will consist of 4 local farms.

Special Thanks to our Supporting Partners

We would like to acknowledge the College of Arts and Sciences Office of Research and Scholarship for continued support of the Food sovereignty Initiative.  

We would also like to extend a special thanks to Destiny Liddle, InEd for the podcast trainings and Sustainable Urban Agricultural Coalition (SUAC) for helping set up the farm tours

Community Resources

Questions About the Event?

For more information about 欧美三级片鈥檚 6th Annual Food Sovereignty Iniative Summit, please contact CAS RSVP