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| <back | home Food Activism and more at Santa Barbara City College by Leif Skogberg My involvement politically at SBCC began with an evening of inspiration in February of 2004, at a conference at UCSB. This conference was put on by the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC), a group of charismatic, enthusiastic, and passionate student organizers from all over California who introduced me to the concept of being a student-activist leader. During this conference, I learned of a policy mandating all University of California campuses to build “green,” taking effect June, 2004. In addition, this policy declared all UC campuses begin producing and purchasing renewable energies to mitigate global warming. The most compelling aspect of this policy was it was written and presented to the UC Regents by students. These students, whom were working closely with Greenpeace at the time, gathered much confidence from passing this policy, so they expanded their campaigns encompassing many areas of sustainability. Not only were these students creating tremendously positive impacts from their campuses, they were having fun building community and friendship in the process. After this CSSC convergence, a close friend, Shawn Jacobson, and I realized we had an opportunity and an important responsibility to our campus and community. The first thing we needed to do was get organized, so we formed an official campus club, the Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) Student Sustainability Coalition (SSC). We found a supportive faculty member, Eric Wise, to be our advisor and elected the officers for our small yet dedicated group. We began visioning what we could create at SBCC. We began building relationships with administrators, faculty, and staff, while learning who we needed to talk to and about what. We soon realized how much was already being done to protect human and environmental health. For instance, SBCC had already banned chemical herbicide use; they were dedicated to using Integrated Pest Management; they had relatively high recycling numbers; nearly all landscaping was irrigated with reclaimed water; and they were using non-toxic cleaning solutions on classroom floors, to name a few. After learning all of this, we realized an even greater potential existed because we had so much to work from already. Our club’s first success was reinitiating a food scrap composting program linking the Culinary Art Department with Environmental Horticulture. Food scraps were separated from trash in the kitchen and taken to the Horticulture Garden for composting; “not only reducing landfill disposal costs, but also generating free compost for the garden,” I explained in a presentation to the Board of Trustees. Our next success was facilitating a crucial meeting between the City of Santa Barbara Solid Waste Department, and the SBCC Director of Facilities, resulting in the City offering a $15,000 grant for recycling system improvements. During this first semester of involvement SSC members, including myself, attended the Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) at UCSB, which was and is the education, outreach, and research component of the CSSC. Hearing many enlightening speakers, we decided to take on the daunting task of organizing an ESLP at SBCC through Adult Education. This lecture series, “Creating a Sustainable Future: Ecology, Ethics, & Design,” became the new priority for our club. Our club helped frame, schedule, and promote the lecture series while raising thousands of dollars for speaker fees. We also had to guarantee Adult Ed student would participate, so we began working with the new SBCC Environmental Studies Professor, Dr. Adam Green. We used an existing “Seminars in Biology” (Biol-291) class to get students 2-Units credit for attending the lectures, while applying lessons in action-research group projects. This class and lecture series was a huge success expanding the dialogue of sustainability in our community while generating a great deal of community involvement and support. It gathered up to 200 people each night inspiring and connecting many great souls, catalyzing a great deal of student enthusiasm and momentum for sustainability. Now, fall 2005, only a year and a half later, a great deal of momentum has been established. With passion and commitment from Dr. Adam Green, current club advisor, we have continued Biology 291 (Projects in Sustainability), which will soon to be Environmental Studies 200. Over thirty students are currently working on sustainability at SBCC in this class. The student group I am working with is conducting a campus sustainability audit, which will identify priority areas for SBCC. Parking and transportation is a major issue at SBCC and we now have ecologically minded students working directly with campus administrators and staff working on best possible solutions. We received the outdoor recycling system improvements from the City, and they are now looking to SBCC as a pilot program for post-consumer food scrap composting, with SBCC possibly being the first to meet the SB city council’s new goal of 70% waste diversion. Proposals are also being drafted by community members who want to set up a biodiesel refinement station on campus to recycle cafeteria/restaurant grease which would then be used in campus vehicles. We are currently establishing an official SBCC Campus Sustainability Committee, made up of various campus decision makers. With support from administrators, faculty, students, community, and staff, SBCC could potentially become what our club has envisioned: a model for sustainability. Overall, I feel satisfied with my political involvement at SBCC, not because of any direct result or achievement, but because I have given a sincere effort. I have gained much knowledge about politics, organization, communication, society, and life. Especially, I am amazed by how much impact students and youth can have in our world, if only more were empowered to be the change. Running complex political campaigns is not the only way to change the world, however, it can be very effective and I highly recommend the experience. Moreover, I have learned it all starts with the simple things: the smiles and the gratitude’s, the laughs and the attitudes. Indeed, we can change the world every moment with our hands, our intentions, and our eyes, with our words and our consciousness, and with our dreams and our visions we believe in enough to realize. California Student Sustainability Coalition website: www.ucssc.net. <back | top^ |