From Farm to Food Bank: Youth Climate Collective Explores Organizational Approaches to Food Justice

By Olivia Johnson, CRC Environmental Storytelling Intern

Artwork by Angel Teo, CRC Intern

From farm to table, food justice asks us not only to reconsider what we eat, but how our choices reflect values of equity, sustainability, and a sense of care for both people and the planet. Hunger, poor food access, and diet-related issues aren’t often at the forefront of climate conversations, yet these struggles, along with environmental injustices, are deeply connected to community health. 

While creating a sustainable food system will require structural overhaul, having local organizations that grow and distribute food both engages residents with their community and helps prevent food insecurity. So, when Resilient Education Manager Alba Cárdenas began devising a food-centered workshop for Climate Resilient Communities’s Youth Climate Collective (YCC) cohort, she knew just where to start. 

Imagining a farm often conjures images of an idyllic countryside, expansive fields, and perhaps a herd of cattle. But, as San Jose’s Veggielution demonstrates, farms come in all shapes and sizes. Nestled underneath a major Highway 101 junction, the Veggielution community farm may not be in a typical location, but it has the charm and produce selection of a midwestern steading. When discussing her motivation for planning the Veggielution visit, Cárdenas stated that she wanted to show the youth  there’s always “access to nature within an urban space,” echoing a core mission of Climate Resilient Communities—ensuring the outdoors are for everyone. The day began with a tour of Veggielution’s facilities, where YCC participants were taught about a variety of farming practices they could apply to an at-home garden. The urban farmers educated youth and Climate Resilient Communities staff on Veggielution’s sustainable methods of production: key features include a bioswale (a ditch or channel designed to trap and filter stormwater runoff), a drip irrigation system, solar panels that power many of the farm’s refrigerators, and a distinct lack of pesticide usage across the fields. Farm coordinator Alejandro Acosta then led the youth through a harvest demonstration, in which he taught YCC participants how to check produce for contamination and explained the way different soils and compost impact root growth. 

The latter half of the tour was dedicated to, from Cárdenas’s perspective, youth “getting their hands dirty.” YCC members split into small groups and rotated between three stations: picking plants from Veggielution’s seasonal vegetable garden, learning about composting, and participating in a scavenger hunt to activate all five senses. At the vegetable garden, YCC participants eagerly picked and ate tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and squash, commenting on the fresh, sweet qualities of the produce. As Veggielution’s environmental education manager Rosa Maria Gordillo Garfunkel quizzed her audience on the different herbs and vegetables they ate, ensuring they understood “knowledge comes from being curious,” and creating a space for youth to ask questions about farming and food without fear of judgement. 

The workers at the composting station were similarly committed to activating the youths’ curiosity, allowing them to ask questions about the role of worms in promoting soil health and how composting works on a biological level. Youth got the opportunity to sift through soil and examine worms under microscopes, an activity sparking fascination and a few squeals of surprise. The final station forced participants to isolate their senses in a process of food identification: for some herbs, participants had to close their eyes and rely on their sense of smell, while other plants were felt instead of tasted. The culmination of this activity was a cooking class, in which YCC students got to use the vegetables they harvested to make themselves salad, demonstrating the practical applications of gardening and growing your own food.

Students learn about Veggielution's vegetable garden.

After a short break for lunch, YCC participants visited Second Harvest Food Bank, where they saw “how food at high volumes is organized and pre-prepped for community spaces that might not have access to food,” Cárdenas explained. The staff at Second Harvest constantly work to destigmatize food insecurity—an issue 1 in 6 people struggle with—and emphasized that needing their resources shouldn’t be a source of shame, but rather a way for locals to get the help they deserve. YCC’s visit to Second Harvest began with a tour, during which they were guided through refrigerators and rooms filled with canned goods, produce, water bottles, and more. On the tour, staff explained the importance of food safety, inventory tracking, and the partnerships that help keep shelves stocked—from grocery stores and local farms like Veggielution to federal food programs. Second Harvest workers even showed YCC the trucks used to transport food in and out of the facility, providing youth with a behind-the-scenes look at the scale and level of coordination needed to feed two counties. Next, they received two presentations on food waste and food safety, where they learned about topics ranging from the difference between sell-by and best-by dates to how to creatively use dairy products that are nearing expiration. After the presentation concluded, participants were given the opportunity to use food from Second Harvest to make toast and yogurt bowls, fostering the sense of autonomy Climate Resilient Communities aims to cultivate throughout the YCC program.

Participants tour Second Harvest Food Bank's facilities.

As the day came to a close, YCC reflected on what they’d digested from their experiences at Veggielution and Second Harvest, to which they responded “the importance of composting, meal prepping, and sharing food,” along with “how long food can last.” From soil to storage facilities, the day’s events allowed future generations to see how just, sustainable food service operations work, enabling them to locate gaps in food accessibility within their own communities and work to address them. By witnessing firsthand the care that goes into growing and distributing food equitably, YCC members gained insight into the vast, often invisible systems that feed our neighborhoods. Through partnerships with organizations like Veggielution and Second Harvest, Climate Resilient Communities is building a generation of youth who not only understand the root causes of food insecurity, but who are empowered to cultivate solutions—one question, one harvest, and one shared meal at a time.