Three Ways to Create Change in Your Local Community, Lessons From Davis Food Advocate, Ann Evans
When you type the word “change” into the Google search bar, the first phrase it auto-predicts is: “change the world.” So, the masses are sitting at their desks, or looking down at their phones, and literally searching for ways to change the world. Many people will succeed—some in Nobel-Prize-worthy ways, and some less grandiose. Ann Evans of Davis California continually succeeds in making change at the local level, which she believes is possible through three paths: legislate, sue, and create.
Evans informally calls herself “an organizer of local food systems.” “Formally,” she says, “I’m a consumer food educator.” But, she is many things; a mother, a bee-keeper, a writer, a chef, a former Mayor of Davis (1984-1986) and In 2013, the City of Davis added one more title to Ann’s repertoire: “Citizen of the Year.”
Davis is located in The Central Valley of Northern California, which is known as the agricultural heart of the state. University of California Davis is recognized for its College of Agriculture, and it is here that Evans received a Bachelor’s degree in Consumer Food Science. While attending University, Evans and peers decided they needed to make a change—specifically, a change in the way they bought their food. “Fundamentally,” Ann says, “I needed a place to buy really good, local, cheap, whole food... and there wasn’t any place in town.” So, the group of young food advocates founded the Davis Food Cooperative from the ground up.
This was only the first of many food organizations Ann Evans would co-found. And, though she worked for the State Department of California for many years, Evans believes beginning from the ground up (or creating an alternative) is the best way to make a change. In regard to her other paths (legislate, and sue), Evans says, “I don’t want to sit around and argue with people, I don’t want to try to convince anybody, and I don’t want to take 5 years to actually get something to happen.” Instead, Evans takes matters into her own hands, and works to bring organic and healthy eating into everyday life. Her mission is to “restore food to its rightful place at the center of people’s lives, and at the center of a healthy agricultural and rural economy and landscape.” She focuses on access to “healthy, delicious food” through building local food systems, opening retail food stores such as a cooperatives and farmers markets, improving school lunch programs, planting school or urban gardens, cooking and canning classes, and organizing community parties centered around seasonal food and celebration.
The Davis Farm to School Connection brought about change for people who have little say about what they decide to put in their bodies: children. This initiative began organically, when one day a fellow parent brought Lunchables to her daughter’s elementary school as a treat. Lunchables, she says are “offensive for the food, for the packaging and that it would be called a treat was just outrageous. So, that’s when I decided okay, forget it, this is it, I’m organizing, I’m going to change this thing.” There are many problems associated with school lunches ranging from nutritional value to the way we define food, and Evans set out to positively influence every aspect. Instead of only implementing changes in school lunches at her daughter’s elementary school, Evans and fellow co-founders of Davis Farm to School decided to implement their changes district-wide, where policy is made and change can truly occur. While doing this, she saw “how easy it would be, with leadership, to transform a school lunch experience for students, and yet how difficult—as usual progress is slow and bureaucracy can really get in the way, as well as other competing priorities for resources and leader’s time.”
When Evans and her colleagues began the Farm to Schools foundation, they did not know that this shift was happening in other places—which is the case with many movements occurring in a moment in history.
Evans happily reminisces on her time with Davis Farm to School. She enjoyed educating school cooks on the five international flavor profiles of food (Asian, European/Mediterranean, Latin American, African, and Middle Eastern/Indian,) that provide a framework for seasonal variety. Because students in California are “the ultimate melting pot,” Evans believes that “they like to eat from cultures different and the same as their own, that their palates expand this way, and they can learn geography, history etc.” As with all of her projects, Evans feels she has been successful with Davis Farm to School. She says, “In hindsight, I have reflected that I’m best when starting something, working for the first ten years until the organization or concept is mainstreamed. Then I prefer to move on to the next aspect of moving more and better food into the center of daily lives of people, from the ground up.”
So, if you want to change the world, start with your local community. As Evans believes, “the local level is where you can really make a difference.” Take your three options into account—legislate sue and create—and weigh the pros and cons. But, if you truly wish to take matters into your own hands, prepare to create an alternative that will serve you and your local community.
