 There is so much more political grounding that's necessary to land work, so that's kind of a big part of it is education. The Berkeley Student Farms is envisioned as a coalition of seven student-led gardens that utilize as community-based organizing. But before it, gardening has always existed on this campus. Gardening on the campus has been around for like forever, whether it's like guerrilla gardening or like more planned spaces. But BSF came about as a coalition in 2020, but like its roots have always extended much farther back than that. In alignment with their values, the coalition recognizes an important issue that the campus is facing. We have recognized that food insecurity on this campus or just like in the area is an issue. So that's kind of where the organization came to tackle was kind of bringing these separate spaces together. Some may ask, in what relation are these spaces to the university? This space has also been allotted by the university as a research area. But it's not just research area. A lot of these different gardens that we have are affinity-based. In an attempt to offer equitable distribution of food and crops, students have ventured outside of these lands. However, the university may not share the same perspective regarding these actions. The university is not a huge fan of us gardening in different spaces on campus. Students have been moved numerous times. So the power sort of is concentrated here in terms of resources, but we always are sharing amongst the different gardens. So why would the university shut down something they allot research for? It's a bit more an opposition of like maybe what we stand for where it's a bit more open access. So Barker has often been shut down. Despite being shut down, gardening and BSF still offer a way to collectively come together in times of chaos and work together towards a collective goal. A lot of that power has sort of been concentrated in the north side because during the pandemic, the farms like obviously the whole school was shut down, but gardening was something that you could do like safely outside. Sabrina Verma, a facilitator at the farms, was personally able to find a community during the isolating years at Berkeley during COVID-19 times. Student groups being remote was just obviously very difficult. You don't really feel as much of a sense of community. But that second semester of my freshman year, Berkeley Student Farms was still offering out here, like open-hour workdays like safety, like distance, but with masks, but it was like actually in person with people. In addition to offering a way to still feel a sense of community, the farm affects the broader UC Berkeley campus, specifically the Basic Needs Center, which offers many resources and support to students. The bulk of our food is grown for the Basic Needs Center on campus, so the food pantry. They like can order produce, but there's obviously gaps in what they get or like specialty items. And we try to like fill in the gaps with stuff that are maybe more specialty crops. A lot of people don't have access to them, and that's just not really fair. Deeper than the physical labor of cultivating the land, the farms offers an opportunity for folks to re-envision farm work. Again, being able to come out here and like garden for fun when land work has been not necessarily for fun for people. That's like a history of exploitation and it's racialized labor. Everybody has different relationships to land, but we do want this space to be open for everyone as a way to heal that. With all of this information and people may be intrigued, who is welcome to Berkeley Student Farms? First of all, anyone in the community is more than welcome to come in and take what they need. There's a lot of like, especially in Northside, like older people kind of come through, and we like some of them are like, oh, can I just like take some kale? And we're like, yeah, of course, anyone who volunteers is more than welcome to or really anybody as a whole. If you're still feeling cautious or scared about getting involved with the farms, Sabrina shares her perspective of what to expect. I think if you are interested, there is no harm in coming. Everyone is really welcoming. Like, I feel like you learn so much from each other and there's not really anything like super wrong you can do. If you're here and you want to come, it's open and as long as you're just willing to learn, I think that if you come with an open mind and respect, this is a place for everybody. To learn more about the Berkeley Student Farms, visit their Instagram at Berkeley Student Farms. Reporting for CalTV, I'm Shayla Slampour.