Episode 1.7 Transcript
Zane Tickoo: Youth Activism and The Power of the Plate
Dinah: Welcome to Farm to School Northeast, a podcast where we explore the creative ways that local food is getting into school cafeterias and how food system education is playing out in classrooms and school gardens across the northeast. Today we have an opportunity to sit down with Connecticut high school student and food system activist Zane Tickoo, to talk about his work and dedication to improve the local food system and support access to healthy food, local economy, and social justice through what he calls the power of the plate. Welcome, Zane. Thanks so much for making time to share with us today.
Zane: Hello, and thank you so much for having me,
Dinah: Zane, can you introduce yourself and tell us how you got interested in the topic of food justice and the food system?
Zane: Sure. So as you mentioned, I’m a high school junior in Connecticut, and for the past few years I’ve been working on food justice initiatives like building school gardens, supporting farm to school programs and researching policy solutions to really expand access to fresh and local food. My work started in a pretty unexpected way, I’d say, through my personal experience with food allergies. So when I was about six months old, I was diagnosed with over 20 life-threatening food allergies. And so I’ve always been pretty hyper aware of what’s in our food, how it’s made, and almost how limiting our choices can be. And then as I really got older, I started to notice a much bigger issue, which would be that our current food system is failing us because it’s built for efficiency rather than effectiveness. And it’s what I came to realize is designed for maximizing corporate profits rather than nourishing people.
Dinah: Zane, you gave a Ted X talk and you called it the power of the plate. Can you explain what that phrase means to you?
Zane: Yeah, to me, when I was thinking of ideas for the talk, I really boiled it down to the idea that every meal is a decision that impacts not just our bodies, but the entire world. Thinking about it, it’s three meals a day every day for a lifetime. That’s a hundred thousand plates of food per person. Those choices are powerful and can determine how our food’s grown, who profits from it, and whether our system’s sustainable in the end. I mean, when we choose whole foods over ultra processed ones, diversify our plates and support local farms and farmers, those are small but powerful changes that can help reshape our food system to create a better future for everyone involved, which realistically is pretty much everyone in a community or a larger town or city.
Dinah: So I know that you’ve worked with the Connecticut Farm to School Institute and other community organizations which support schools in developing sustainable farm to school programs. What do you think are the best strategies to support food system education in schools?
Zane: The best strategies make food education relevant and integrate it into daily learning, I’d say. I think, I mean, I have a few favorites I could share. So I guess one of them would be maintaining a school garden. And I think this is probably the best learning opportunity because it allows kids to grow their own food as they develop a deep understanding of where their food comes from, and they also can become more adventurous eaters. And I mean in the process, they’re learning all kinds of lessons related to science, sustainability, and community. And on top of that, there’s a ton of anecdotal evidence as well relating to mental health benefits too for school gardens. So it’s really that all encompassing aspect where it can benefit them mentally, it can benefit their achievement and advancement in school, and they can also benefit them physically. Of course. I’d say my second favorite way to support food system education is going to be farm to school or cafeteria to farm partnerships.
And I think when schools source local produce and really highlight it in their meals so that students can see the connection between their farms and their daily food, that can be really constructive for the students themselves. And I think lastly, but I mean still a very, very important method to help the farm to school idea in curriculums is really integrating food into everything across the school’s life, especially their curriculum. I’d say, I mean, food education shouldn’t be an extra, it should be a part of the science, economics and social studies curriculums to show the full impact of our food system on our lives and in the world. I think the exciting thing for me is that this vision has already become a reality in quite a few schools here in Connecticut. As you mentioned, I’ve been working with the Connecticut Farm to School Institute, which is a year long professional development program that helps school districts build farm to school action plans and implement these strategies in real life. And I think that has been an incredibly helpful metric for a lot of schools to help push forward their farm to school plans and curriculums. But also it’s been really important for me to help kind of reaffirm my understanding of the good work that can be done through farm to school curriculums and that there’s so many like-minded people across the state who are already trying to get it done.
Dinah: So you have worked in partnership with local community leaders and politicians. How are these partnerships important to food system activism and to getting these curriculum changes to happen and getting school gardens to happen?
Zane: Yeah, I think the most foundational level partnerships with community groups and government leaders turn ideas into action, and it’s something really tangible. For example, I interned with state representative Jamie Foster here in Connecticut, and I helped support House Bill 05003, a law that expands SNAP benefits and farmer’s market access for low-income families to many, many more people across the state. And I think without strong policy backing, many farm to school and food justice programs would never get off the ground and really thrive and expand, reaching the amount of people that they can and reaching their full potential and really helping as many people as they can. And I think that’s something that’s really important. And on a local level, working with nonprofits, for example, farmers, educators, and generally organizations that are focused on helping others helps us to make sure that the solutions we’re coming up with are really actionable and tailored to local situations and circumstances. And by the end, really being community driven as a way to make those efforts sustainable so that they can be really carried on into the future. And I think policy change and grants provide essential support like funding and general guidelines, but I think on top of that, real grassroots change needs to happen and needs to be supported by local communities. So it’s really a combination of both higher up government change as well as local support. And I think that’s found in community groups.
Dinah: So the school gardens that you helped to build, how did those gardens happen and how are those gardens going to continue to be supported?
Zane: Schools really need to have access to a garden.These– food is of course one of the most important things for kids to learn about. And a school garden is really a living classroom, you could say. By working in a garden, kids learn where food comes from, kids build food literacy and generally become more curious and adventurous eaters. For some kids, it’s their first hands-on experience with fresh produce and can completely change the way that they view their food. On top of that, I think working in a school garden really fosters a connection to the food and the environment that kids really struggle to get from other places. There’s even some evidence that working a garden helps improve mental health by reducing stress and improving focus, which I mentioned a little bit earlier. But specifically being involved with the crops and working in an environment that children don’t really experience on a daily basis improves many aspects of their lives apart from just food literacy or understanding.
And all this really sets kids up for healthy habits and motivates them to view the natural world as something that they can actually impact and care for rather than something that’s distantly removed from their daily life, especially if they live in a city or urban environment. With that in mind, I designed a teacher training workshop for preschool educators called Seeds that introduces younger children or students to the basics of our food system. And that was kind of started because back in 2023, I applied for a grant to get the program up and running in some early education centers in Bridgeport that sadly didn’t get the grant. And that was pretty disheartening, but I really understood that I had to keep making that effort because it was an important thing to do. And when I was speaking and making the connections with the preschools around Bridgeport, Connecticut, they were so, so excited to integrate farm to school curriculums and ideas into their programming that I knew not getting the grant wasn’t the place where I could stop.
So luckily I’d made some connections in the past few years with organizations across Bridgeport, Connecticut. And so two people that were instrumental in moving the idea forward were Diego Ossis with the Green Village Initiative and Jessica Rosario with groundwork, both organizations in Bridgeport, I mean they’re awesome organizations, they’re nonprofits that support urban farming and school garden initiatives. So they were really helpful in the next step, which was that there was still some leftover grant money that GVI had from the Paul Newman Foundation that could potentially be used for constructing gardens at preschools. And so with Diego’s help, we presented Gvi i’s board with a plan, and this time we got the money, which was great. And so we started doing site visits to really understand the schoolyards, looking at where the sunlight was, and really since it was in the center of Bridgeport, Connecticut, understanding traffic and other factors like that, we also got to do some troubleshooting.
For example, one location had no water source, so we ended up making a big rain barrel to water the garden beds. And I do also have to give Diego a big shout out because he drew up a design for these elevated hex beds that would be ideal for preschoolers to work with. And so it’s really taking into account who our audience would be being the preschoolers and how to best optimize this garden bed idea for them. And so Jessica eventually had her scouting and brought a bunch of volunteers in. And long story short, after a few months about two tons of soil and some seeds later, we had a volunteer youth team come and we constructed a dozen raised garden beds at three different Bridgeport Bridgeport preschools. Going forward, we’ve got a few different strategies to really support these gardens and ensure that the program is sustainable.
Like I said before, it’s important that these gardens and the garden beds aren’t just there, but there’s a real understanding about how they should be used and that they can be held and supported and become really a staple of the schools and their curriculum going into the future. I’ll be heading back around this spring a few times in person to do some hands-on training with the teachers and students, which is just kind of another way to support that curriculum and support that integration. And on top of that, contributing to a column called Growing Together to the pre-school newsletters that includes at-home activities for parents and students to really help get the whole community involved. Really getting that buy-in I think is so vital, and I think starting it at the preschools and letting that kind of emanate out back into the homes is a great way to do that. And then of course, organizations I’ve been working with and myself will stay in touch with all of the awesome local volunteers to help answer any questions and find solutions to whatever challenges arise. And I think, yeah, that’s just the best way to go forward and really ensure that the opportunity that we were able to create with the garden beds is really maximized and it can serve as a great example for other preschools or schools that are interested in integrating a garden into their curriculum in the future.
Dinah: So Zane, what has inspired you, you mentioned that you had significant food allergies to contend with, but what has inspired you to get into gardening? Have you had gardens at your school? Are there educators you’ve had that have put this into curriculum? What has given you this excitement and this passion?
Zane: Yeah, so really coming away from the food allergies, I really want to just develop an understanding for the food that we eat. And so in my schools or school system, there was never really a school garden that I had experienced with, and teachers never really integrated it into any classes or curriculums. But when I was really looking to understand more about the food that we eat and how it impacted ourselves, I thought the best way to go about doing that would be to understand the food itself and really start from the bottom and then slowly work my way up until I could feel pretty comfortably informed and start making an impact myself. So that really came as me reaching out to a few different farms across nearby areas in Connecticut and beginning to work on them. So a few years ago now, I reached out and was able to intern at Wakeman Town Farm in west Fort Connecticut.
And that was a great experience because I was able to help out with growing crops, tending to livestock, even at a portion, and also helping to run their local farm stand. And so that was really, really insightful for me to understand from when the seeds planted, the preparation that farmers do, all the way through when it’s getting sold and distributed to the community. And it was honestly pretty special to see how different members of the community would come in and we’re so excited to have such fresh local food and even learn new ways to cook food or experience new produce that they’ve never tried before. And so that was kind of the first portion. And secondly, I was able to work with the organization, GVI, which I had mentioned. They focus on creating urban farms in cities around Bridgeport, Connecticut. So I was able to work with them on their urban farm, which gave a completely new perspective as well, additionally to a more rural farm about the benefits that really thoughtful agriculture can have on communities. So yeah, those two experiences really kind of transitioned me into understanding how gardening and urban agriculture and garden based learning can improve the lives of so many people. And that kind of set the groundwork for the rest of my work in these last few years.
Dinah: So as a young activist, can you speak to how adults, whether they’re community members or educators, how can adults support your work as a leader and what is the best way for educators and adults to support young leaders as they emerge?
Zane: Yeah, I think the biggest thing would be to give young people really a seat at the table. And it seems like it, all of the opportunities for gaining experience and making a difference opened up, at least for me when I was looking probably a few years ago, the day you turn 18. But they’re driven young people who really aren’t willing to wait until their 18th birthday and really would love to make an impact before then. I feel like too often adults see youth activism as just inspiring rather than really impactful. And in reality, I think young people and students have great ideas and solutions, and I think they really just need opportunities to implement them or even understand flaws in their ideas. So that’ll really shape them and channel them into being really impactful advocates for the rest of their life. And of course, they also need access to mentors who will challenge their ideas.
So I think having that collaborative community, which is really in support of young people and understands that they are the future of that activism is a really important thing. To give one example, I’ve been involved with a group called the Farm to School Collaborative here in Connecticut for about a year now, and I’ve been helping to build out their Youth Connection platform. That’s one of the projects I’ve been working on with them. And one simple adjustment they made was to move their monthly meetings from the morning to the afternoon so that school-aged volunteers and students can attend and be a part of the decision-making conversations. And I think such a simple step like that is so powerful because it even gives youth the option to not sacrifice going to school, but also be involved. And so, yeah, I really think supporting young people isn’t just about encouragement, but really empowering the youth with almost a countless number of crises that we’re facing on as a global community, including maybe plummeting a number of young farmers. We need all the help that we can get and finding and implementing those solutions is so much more successful with that diversity and plethora of new perspectives that young people kind of provide. And I think involving young people in real world experiences and mentorships is how we can reshape that future that is called into question so much by so many of the global problems that we’re facing.
Dinah: Those are some really useful suggestions. Thank you. Thank you for spelling them out like that. What are the ways that you continue to be involved in the food system and food justice work and what’s next for you?
Zane: Yeah, so I mentioned the Seeds workshop, and that’s kind of under my organization, FEI, but I’m still working hard on initiatives to expand urban agriculture and food literacy education in Bridgeport. With groundwork and GVI, we really are hoping to expand some of those garden bed projects to different preschools and understand the impact that we can have and keep refining that program. I think that’s really important. But I’m also really excited to be doing some research work for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. Right now I’m interviewing local restaurant owners and managers to see how we can overcome some of the food sourcing barriers for the Farm to Chef program and get more local food into our restaurants and restaurant kitchens. Sorry. And there’ve been some really cool conclusions that I’ve found doing that research, whether it’s the amount of time that local restaurant owners have to get in contact with farmers or conversely farmers not having enough time or resources to get in contact with local restaurants or even questions of quantity that local farmers can produce.
So there have been some really, really interesting conclusions I found there so far, and we’re looking to make impacts and legislative referrals based on those in the near future. And then I’m also part of a team with the Connecticut Farm to School Institute, and we’re working to implement farm to school practices across classrooms, cafeterias, and different communities in Connecticut school districts. And so that work is still definitely continuing for the coming year. Right now we’re working hard to plan the next year’s institute, which is always a great experience. And then really definitely just going forward, I’m going to try to keep advocating for food literacy, food diversity, and really access. And I’d like to expand my efforts of research education and urban agriculture to maybe even a national level and even beyond that, and really see where those efforts can create an impact to as many people as possible. Ultimately, I really would hope to plan on building a career that combines food systems, policy work, and businesses really understanding a comprehensive view of the food system to create a large scale impact. So that’s something I see quite a few years down the line for myself, but until then, it’s really just local work and scaling that CFR can go.
Dinah: I’m so happy that you have this energy and this passion to do this work. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you would like to share?
Zane: I guess organizations that I’ve worked with, and even myself, we’re always looking for passionate volunteers of all ages. And so anyone who wants to get involved really should look to get involved. And I think personally for myself, that process started for me a few years ago when I was around 13 years old. And it took a bit of trying, but there’s always an organization who’s willing to get extra volunteers and extra members. And so I think that’s something really important. If people want to get involved, they definitely can, and there’s a lot of ways to do so. Anyone who would want to reach out to me can connect with me on LinkedIn at Zane Tku. And I think overall, I just really want a lot of people to understand that change starts small, and you don’t have to be a policymaker or a farmer or someone in a position of power to create that impact on the food system.
I mean, as a student, a 13-year-old who was looking to make an impact and see where our food system is going in the future, I was eventually able to find ways to get involved and to help make a pretty meaningful impact on a personal level with a lot of people. So I think that’s just something to really keep in mind that, I mean, I said in the TEDx talk, it starts with one meal, one choice, and one action, and I think that’s just a really great mindset to have because it’s not something that’s too big for anyone. Each meal that we have and each choice that we make for those meals really can resonate throughout the food system as a whole when they add up and when everyone really starts making that conscious decision making. So yeah, I think that’d be it.
Dinah: Well, thank you so much for the inspiring work you do and the passion you bring to it and the work you’re doing in your community. It’s really remarkable.
Zane: Yeah, thank you so much for having me on and giving me an amazing platform to share what I’ve been doing with more people. So yeah, thank you so much. And it was amazing talking to you.
Dinah: This podcast is a production of the Northeast Farm to School Collaborative. For more information about this podcast or farm to school in the northeast, go to northeastfarmtoschool.org
Phone: (413) 253-3844
Email: info@massfarmtoschool.org
