Summer at Hamilton

This summer, thanks to the Emerson Grant committee, I am able to conduct research on the Hill.
Here is a short summary of my proposal:
After visiting Nuestras Raices, a thriving community farm in Holyoke, Massachusetts – a city similar to Utica – I am curious to see if a community farm could help increase Utica’s economic prospects, strengthen ties between Hamilton and the local community, and provide the local population with a sense of agency. I hope an Emerson Grant will provide me with firsthand experience in applying theory to practice. The research I conduct this summer will become critical to writing my Women’s Studies thesis on local food movements, women, and food as a form of cultural maintenance in immigrant populations. I will be implementing community gardens at Martin Luther King Elementary School and the Resource Center for Independent Living. Work will include interviewing local residents and organizations, obtaining demographic and statistical data from the city, looking into issues of soil lead poisoning in the area and conducting grant research to make the actual projects feasible.

Because I am working to increase the local food movement in Utica, I am pledging to personally change the way I eat my own food:
1. Only eat local meats (within 100 miles)
2. Stop purchasing processed foods
3. Buy as much produce from the farmers market in Clinton & Utica
4. Eat in season

This blog will be a documentation of my work in Utica as well as personal food experiences this summer. Bon appetit!