El Cajon Community Garden!

The city of El Cajon finally got city council approval to begin its very own community garden and this last Saturday was the official grand opening! Spearheaded by the International Rescue Committee and Kaiser Permanente San Diego, the garden is incredibly exciting for the entire community. Over 120 people gathered to celebrate the Roots Fresh Farm Community Garden and break ground on the fourty-one expected garden plots.

The IRC has long supported community-based farming initiatives such as this. The IRC in San Diego's Food Security and Community Health program creates innovative and sustainable projects that increase healthy, locally-grown, culturally-appropriate foods for and by San Diego's refugee and low-income communities. The New Roots Community Farm provides growing spaces for 85 families in the heart of City Heights. The Pauma Farm (where we've worked many times) serves as a farmer training program to help refugees turn farming into a business. And now El Cajon has a community garden for its own!   

You can read more about the grand opening in this Union Tribune article or like the International Rescue Committee in San Diego's facebook page for photo-updates on the garden as it takes root and grows!

All photos are courtesy of the IRC San Diego

TIL 2nd Annual Spring Talent Show

For the last two years the Triton International Leaders have hosted a campus-wide talent show celebrating diversity and students' hidden talents. A unique platform for students to perform and win enviable prizes, the event also raises money for the International Rescue Committee's efforts to assist newly arrived refugees in San Diego. This year was another great success and we raised $96! 

- Our emcees Soomin and Harrison - 

Our grand prize winner! 

Congratulations on a job well done! Can't wait for next year!

Culture Cup 2013

Love playing soccer? Want to get free food, play two games, get a free t-shirt and enter exciting raffles? Want to raise money to directly help the thousands of refugees in San Diego county?

Come play at UCSD's Culture Cup 2013! You can check out the facebook page to learn more and sign up your team at www.culturecup2013.eventbrite.com 

A Helping Hand: The IRC in San Diego

Pauma Farm Day

Our work day at the Pauma Farm was a great success once again! 

The Pauma farm is part of the IRC's REAP training program; a place where refugees can learn farming techniques and bring in extra income from their harvested produce. Refugees can sell their produce at farmer's markets such as the ones in El Cajon and City Heights, as well as the nearby Pauma Casino.

Many of the crops they cultivate start as seedlings, sometimes from seeds brought from refugees' countries of origin. Refugee farmers will raise hundreds of seedlings on sturdy tables such as the ones we built before replanting them in Pauma's wide open fields.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work! Can't wait for next time. :)