- MSc in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 2018
- BA in American Studies (with distinction), Carleton College, 2015
Bio
Victoria completed her Master’s program in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems with the support of a Fulbright Research Grant. Her ethnographic research seeks to learn from community-based solutions to food insecurity in immigrant and refugee communities. Raised in a small town in Northern Wisconsin, Victoria has seen the potential that small-scale agriculture has to bring rural communities together and the utility of food as a tool for community organizing. At Carleton, her research looked at relationship between food access programs and immigrant and refugee communities in rural Minnesota and the US/Mexico Borderlands.
Outside of the classroom, Victoria sought ways to create community around food as manager of the campus farm, mentor of youth cooking classes, and coordinator of the gleaning volunteer program. In 2013, she was awarded a Philips Scholarship in Community Service which provided the seed money for her to create the Farmer to Family program, a mobile vegetable market aimed at making local food and culinary workshops available to people in low-income neighborhoods.
Victoria’s participation in food security initiatives has led her to believe that solving hunger is not just about access to “healthy” food, it is about community resilience. She is excited to be part of the UBC community and hopes her ethnographic research will to provide insight to hunger relief organizations working with diverse populations and fold new voices into food studies scholarship.
Master’s Thesis
This thesis calls attention to the approaches and outcomes of alternative food initiatives (AFI) towards cultural inclusion and racial justice through two case studies. The first is an analysis of the approaches to cultural inclusion by four food policy councils in Metro Vancouver. The second takes a closer look at one AFI, the Richmond community garden program, to better understand how garden participants navigate and benefit from the convergence of difference in public gardens. Through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis this thesis exposes the complexity of shifting towards culturally inclusive practice and provides key learnings for AFI practitioners as they strive towards more culturally inclusive outcomes in their own context.