Priorities

Sustainable Food Systems

Mission

We are dedicated to creating and supporting regenerative local food systems. Through community engagement, education and project-based assistance, we intend on empowering low-income communities and creating equitable, affordable food access throughout Arizona.

Objectives

1
Increase food security in low income communities and mitigate food deserts by creating and supporting projects that provide low-income communities with equitable, affordable, convenient access to healthy foods.
2
Provide education to Arizonans on best practices for growing, eating and recycling healthy foods
3
Provide support to local farmers, distributors and vendors to strengthen the local food economy by increasing the amount of food that is grown and consumed locally

Priorities-Sustainable-Food-Systems-Featured-Image

Volunteers

Volunteer Hours

Current and Planned Programs

Food Tech For The Future

The Food Tech For the Future: Growing Digital Farmers Program introduces students, teachers, volunteers, and the community to the world of food computers. The innovative nature of this project inspires engagement from tech industries and global support from giants like Google. This highly interactive program allows students to conduct practical yet scientific action research projects to improve their local school community, conduct plant growth experiments, share the data globally, and learn about biology, genetics, technology, and robotics through first-hand experience. All students develop and present their project that meets the needs of their specific context.

The goal is that students will develop a greater awareness of agritech concepts with the potential interest in continuing to study food technology in college and working to ensure that global food needs are met. This program aims to educate, engage, and inspire young adults to think critically about sustainability issues and create innovative yet viable solutions based on credible science, research, and technology.

Sow It Forward

Sow It Forward is a vertical garden program that focuses on a “farm-to-market” approach that allows for an immersive experience with aspects of agriculture. The program aims to create opportunities to expand access to healthy foods beyond the classroom with vertical gardens. Students and teachers can grow their produce in the school while learning how this relates to nutrition and food system sustainability. After the curriculum, schools run local farmers’ markets with their grown produce. Check out our Sow It Forward Resource Guide for step-by-step guidance on how to start a vertical garden program in your school.

Help-A-Farm

AZSA works to not only support local farms but also strengthen the local food culture and, therefore, the economy in Maricopa County! The overall goals for this project include:

Helping one farm a month with farm productions labor
Learning more about what type of help AZSA can provide to farms
Create relationships with local farms to build on in future projects
Connect our communities to local farms and gardens to strengthen local food culture

This project aims to strengthen our local food community through farm support. We will not only provide support to farms in the form of labor, but we will also provide an experience for volunteers, who will be able to learn about the farms, the food, and the process it takes to grow them. We want to engage community members to participate in the program and learn more about their local food system.

By connecting our community with local farms and teaching people more about what it takes to grow food, we aim to increase the perceived value of locally grown food among our volunteers. Ideally, this will inspire volunteers to source more of their produce from local farms, supporting all their work.