Certificate in Food Justice and Resilient Communities

Champion access to nutritional meals and increase food security.

Through community, workplace and campus gardens, make healthy food accessible in every community to increase food security, mitigate climate change, and build community resistance. While this passionate and growing movement is gaining momentum, we still have a lot of work to do until every citizen has equal access to the fresh fruits and vegetables that should be a staple of their diets. We’re here to help you empower people to connect with the sources of their food, practice healthy eating, and build communities with a high degree of food security, to strengthen personal, communal, and environmental resiliency and health.

This certificate is offered by AU New England.

Program Overview

Keene, New Hampshire, is committed to becoming the “healthiest community in America” by 2020 (Healthy Monadnock). The “Farm to School” movement is reshaping school lunch programs across the U.S. And various efforts are improving access to healthy food and reducing food insecurity across the globe.

AUNE’s Community Garden Connections (CGC) has several robust food justice and garden education programs to complement this certificate, including community-based gardens, workplace gardens, and campus gardens. Over 500 community members participate in CGC programming annually.

Degree Requirements

Program Length:

The certificate can be completed within 32 weeks. Food Justice and Resilient Communities certificate courses meet one day/week or as intensives, aligned with our current Environmental Studies’ delivery models.

Requirements

Students complete the required courses from within the Environmental Studies department, a minimum of 3 credits from each of the following areas:

Certificate Core Requirement (minimum 3 credits)

• Community & School-based Sustainable Food Systems (3 cr)
• Citizen Participation & Sustainable Communities (3 cr)
• Civic Ecology & Community Resilience (3 cr)

Resilience & Ecological Health (minimum 3 credits)

• Climate Change Resilience, Adaptation and Mitigation (3 cr)
• Soil Ecology (3 cr)
• Principles of Sustainability (3 cr)

Application (minimum 3 credits)

• Program Evaluation for Environmental and Conservation Educators (3 cr)
• Program Planning & Design (3 cr)
• Professional Internship related to food justice, resilient communities (3 cr)