Our Crowdfunding Groups
The Berkeley Student Farms coalition is a student-led organization that prioritizes movement building, liberatory imagination, and the equitable distribution of food, land, and knowledge through collective action and resistance. The coalition utilizes ecological land stewardship to create a network of sites dedicated to anti-oppression and student basic needs, ultimately producing thriving safe spaces for experiential education and food sovereignty in the Bay Area.
First and foremost, BSF recognizes that the land we steward as the occupied ancestral land of the Chochenyo speaking Muwekma and Lisjan Ohlone People. We strive to honor their struggle for sovereignty that continues today by supporting Ohlone and indigenous-led food sovereignty initiatives such as Cafe Ohlone, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, the Indigenous and Native Coalition, and more.
Our first goal is to enact and uplift existing food sovereignty initiatives. As a student collective, we recognize the multi-generational decolonial efforts and mutual aid networks developed by BIPOC communities long before the existence of Berkeley Student Farms. For our community, part of what it means to strive for food justice is to be educated about the histories of oppression and colonization that have necessitated food justice and agricultural practices that are not only more ecologically sustainable, but intentionally designed to resist oppressive economic hierarchies and feed communities that are systematically excluded from the dominant food systems of industrial agriculture. Your donation would help keep our facilities thrive and be a place where all are welcome to learn and participate!
Our second goal, land decolonization and empowerment of BIPOC leadership, is how BSF actualizes our commitment to supporting existing food sovereignty initiatives. Four out of our eight gardens and farms are dedicated to underrepresented BIPOC student communities. The work of decolonizing our land, our food, and our community is an ongoing and continuous effort. In partnership with BlPOC farmers and land stewards, we provide workshops centered around the liberation and decolonization of farming practices. We organize our own educational opportunities to better actualize anti-oppression initiatives into our work as land stewards such as our Agroecology in Action! DeCal and our upcoming summer fellowship. BSF also works on the land in collaboration with other student groups like the Native American Student Development and students at the Black Resource Center with the Fannie Lou Hamer Farm. Including more people in this work is critical: your contributions can help more people get involved with our farms.
Our third community goal is to offer intercultural and place-based learning opportunities. UC Berkeley does not currently use a hands-on, experiential, land-based pedagogy; BSF responds by learning from one another and the land. Our agroecology DeCal includes weekly workshops in various farming spaces, and we’ve offered workshops on healing herbs, seed saving, and other accessible and critical activities. Both our farming practices and the food we grow reflects the cultural diversity of our community, as BSF is one of the only sites on campus where students can have directaccess to a spectrum of agricultural and food traditions. These experiences are greatly impacted by your generosity, providing us with the resources to connect our communities back to their food!
Finally, our fourth goal is to build solidarity and community partnerships. For BSF, our values of food sovereignty and justice means creating radical accessibility to food, land, and experiential learning. We recognize that this vision is always in the process of becoming. In this way, our efforts are only as effective as the relationships that we can foster with other campus student organizations and campus administrative, financial, and academic departments. To increase the distribution of food, we also work in partnership with the UC Berkeley Basic Needs Center and Food Pantry, the Gill Tract Farm Coalition, and other local grassroots organizations. Twice a week, our food is taken to the BNC which receives over 1700 unique visitors. This partnership shows the way in which BSF has integrated itself within other university food justice initiatives; we as students are committed to feeding the entire school community especially students who are economically and housing insecure as well as the underpaid workers that make the existence of our educational institution possible. You can find the rest of our partnerships such as The Gill Tract Farm Coalition and the Berkeley Food Institute on our website. Your gifts are essential in making sure we can continue to produce food that supports our communities!
Overall, BSF believes that land stewardship is a powerful therapeutic and healing practice. Tending seeds, soil, and plants are somatic practices that reconnect the body to food, culture, and more-than-human life. Your donations will help BSF continue to reach our goals and support our community!
Donate to Berkeley Student Farms and help fund garden operations within UC Berkeley’s largest student-run farming coalition dedicated to food justice and land sovereignty!
In order to meet the needs of our growing coalition, we need support to provide each of our gardens and farms with the resources that they need so that BSF can continue to provide free and nutritious food, wellness programming, and educational workshops to the student body and Berkeley community. These resources include:
Repairing greenhouses, shade structures, and storage sheds
Student stipends
Tools such as clippers, gloves, etc.
Seeds and soil
Compost materials (thermometer, shredder)
Irrigation systems
Workshop guest speakers and materials
Signage around the gardens
and more!
As a totally student-led organization (established Summer 2020), BSF already supports almost 300 volunteers in 8 different garden spaces. Your donation will put tools in the hands of student farmers and seeds into the ground, helping BSF strengthen its coalition across UC Berkeley’s campus and the East Bay.
Join the farming revolution!
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Contact Us with any questions comments or concerns at
claire-h23@berkeley.edu
or follow us on Instagram and Facebook @berkeleystudentfarms
Every 10 dollar donation will receive a sticker or print designed by one of our very own volunteers!
Those who make a donation of $25 will get a hand made thank you card made by the volunteers at our farm!
Donors of $100 will get a personalized thank you video from the volunteers!
A chance to visit our farm and meet some of our volunteers will be available to donors of $200 or more. Optional activity: paint your name or a message of your choosing on a rock that will be kept in the garden space!
