Our Values

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Evelyn Rosas, the first recipient of our annual Simply Organic Scholarship

Meet Israel Dawson, the 2011 recipient of our annual Simply Organic Scholarship.

Simply Organic Scholarship Recipient: Israel Dawson

Israel Dawson, the 2011 recipient of Simply Organic's apprentice scholarship, is already planning how he'll incorporate his experience at UCSC into his dream of making organic foods accessible and affordable to low-income populations. He believes locating an organic farm and/or farmers' market near low-income neighborhoods will encourage positive neighborhood interactions and provide healthy food alternatives to processed fast foods that contribute to poor nutrition.

His focus at UCSC is on developing the skills to create Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects that get locally grown organic food into the hands of more people through co-ops, farmers' markets, and urban farming efforts. He would like to develop a local CSA business model that could be readily adapted in a variety of settings. "This local model would help establish jobs and provide affordable means for people to have a healthy diet from their local communities," he says.

Israel believes that when a neighborhood works cooperatively in a CSA, a greater sense of community emerges as it connects people with the food they're eating. "To eat healthy, locally grown, organic food that you and/or your neighbors produce is an ideal way to eat consciously and affordably," he says. He believes this framework can be successful for low-income neighborhoods in Southern California.

An interesting aspect of Dawson's local, urban, CSA model is a bicycle service that keeps the delivery system sustainable and carbon-free from harvest to final consumption point. Already a partner in Pedalers Express, a local Santa Cruz bike courier co-op, Dawson has seen first-hand the hard work and communication skills necessary to make a fledgling business stay afloat. "One of the best things about a co-op is that we all must work together as equals, while recognizing that individuals bring unique skills to the process, which makes it successful in the end," he says.

Israel came to UC Santa Cruz's CASFS Apprenticeship program with a lot of self-taught knowledge of food production but little formal training. "I was mostly learning from the reading I was doing and from trial and error," he says. "This program is giving me the grounding I need."

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More recent donations:

:: IVRD&D
:: Madagascar
:: MOSES
:: Organic Center (The)
:: Organic Farming Research Foundation
:: Rooibos Tea
:: Training Farmers in India
:: UCSC Scholarship
:: Simply Organic Scholarship Recipients