Join us to celebrate the WasteNot program and the work of borderlands youth who interviewed community members about their household sustainability and explored innovative entrepreneurial solutions to the region’s surplus food issues.
Nov. 16, 2019 | 2:30-7:30pm (Come to some or all!)
Holler & Saunders, 590 W International St, Nogales, AZ 85621
2:00pm: Community Celebration Kick-Off
2:30-4pm: Info Table Fair
2:30 & 3:30pm: Holler & Saunders tours
4 pm: Youth Presentations by WasteNot Story, WasteNot Startup, and Seeds/Semillas
6:30pm Shared Meal
Every year, 60 percent of all fresh produce in the United States arrives through the port of entry in Nogales, AZ. Over 6000 tons of that produce, much of it still fresh, ends up in the Rio Rico landfill. That surplus could be turned into value-added food products or fertile compost for use in household or commercial ventures. WASTE NOT engaged Nogales, AZ youth in ethnographic documentation and entrepreneurial innovation addressing the community’s waste management and food surplus issues. It was a partnership between VozFrontera (a program of the Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA), Startup Unidos, and the University of Arizona Office of Sustainability/Compost Cats. It was funded, in part, by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
“This program is critical in the borderlands because it creates the space for young people to see themselves as problem solvers and identify opportunities in their own community,” said program manager Nelda Ruiz, who grew up in Nogales. “Living on the front lines of environmental injustice, young people see firsthand broken systems all around them. From ongoing militarization at the port of entry to the unnecessary loss of tons of fresh produce passing through that port and then dumped at the landfill. They are ready to change these systems using the folklorist’s tools to document everyday culture and the entrepreneur’s tools to innovate new solutions for their community.”
Free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.
Docu:Nogales