We offer training and consulting in planning strategies in collaboration with communities working to develop and deepen cultural and economic opportunities. Some examples of our work in this area include:
La Doce Barrio Foodways Project (2016-present)
Tucson’s South 12th Ave (La Doce) is celebrated locally as a natural “Cultural and Culinary Corridor,” complete with Sonoran cuisine, colorful signage, family businesses, and expressions of heritage. SFA trained community members to document local foodways and offered a critical evaluation in a final report, which included recommendations for future cultural planning. More about La Doce is here.
Yoeme Culinary Resistance (2015-present)
SFA is working with Yaqui and Yoeme communities in Sonora and Arizona to explore connections between the cultivation and preparation of wheat and the tribe’s resiliency and cultural preservation. We are assisting communities in developing a strategic plan for its economic recovery using oral histories, test planting sites, and artisanal cooking workshops. See publications from that project on our Documentation page.
El Paso Foodways (2015-present)
SFA is assisting La Mujer Obrera, an El-Paso, TX-based organization dedicated to creating communities defined by women, in creating a master plan to strengthen food-oriented community development, including local food production, heritage food programs, and farmer’s markets in the Chamizal neighborhood of South Central El Paso. In 1994, 35,000 jobs left El Paso and dozens of factories closed, resulting in the highest number of displaced workers in the country, many of whom lived in Chamizal.
Equitable Evaluation & Ethnography