This project focuses on offering young children in the Child Development Laboratory opportunities for engagement with the natural world and the ability to develop an ethic of care for our planet. Children will be able to spend time outdoors and in the Arcata Community Forest no matter the weather, geared up for the elements and ready to observe, interact, and develop an ethos of care for the place they call home.

This project will serve students in the emerging Critical Agriculture Studies major and the wider university community. The project will fund some initial infrastructure, including two polycarbonate greenhouses, a rainwater catchment system and a vegetable washing station. A part of this project is the ‘Cotton & Collards: A Black Plant Relationships Initiative’ which focuses on two plants central to the history of Black people in the United States.

The Latinx Community Food Initiative aims to broaden student access to fresh, culturally relevant foods while empowering them to learn where to obtain and even grow their own ingredients, fostering a deeper connection to ancestral food practices and environmental sustainability. A bi-monthly food security campaign will be hosted, designed to connect students with essential resources that promote food autonomy and access to fresh, culturally significant ingredients.

The Native American Studies Department’s Rou Dalagurr Food Sovereignty Lab and Traditional Ecological Knowledges Institute, Cultural Fire Club, and the NAS Department are leading Returning Good Fire — an Indigenous-led rematriation project restoring cultural burns on California’s North Coast. Guided by cultural fire practitioners and Indigenous students, the project supports habitat restoration, revives culturally significant plants, conserves water, and trains future Indigenous firekeepers.

SHIFT has been funding the Black to the Land Project, orginally conceived as the Black Educational Farm program, in collaboration with the Umoja Center for Pan African Student Excellence at the Bayside Park Farm since 2022.

The Black Educational Farm program has 3 goals:

 1. To teach and develop farming skills with Black students 

2. To develop a sense of belonging in the local community 

3. Facilitate discussions and learning that center Black experiences, knowledge and challenges pertaining to sustainability and land. 

This project allocated $10,000 to have CCAT raise live chickens on campus. This project's purpose is to allow students at Cal Poly Humboldt have the opportunity to learn about food waste, sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology and livestock care. CCAT will obtain food waste on campus and use it as food for the chickens, then use manure produced to create compost for further agricultural projects.