Rachel Tomczek

What if you worked for more than ten years in a single field and then decided that it was not enough and you wanted to try something totally, wildly different? That is what happened after watching a movie called Food Inc. several years ago and ever since then I've been falling down the proverbial rabbit-hole of food activism and discovery. I still work as a nurse, but my heart is not filled with passion for it any longer. I enrolled in grad school and am working on my Master of Arts in Cultural Studies degree; specifically focusing on the issues of food security, food access and food justice. I have begun to take into consideration the discourses surrounding space, power, class, inclusion/exclusion and how these relate to food spaces - farmers markets; farms; local, high end grocery markets; and local food activist initiatives. I have focused my research using participant observation and autoethnographic methodologies to critically analyze the following questions:

• In what ways are people excluded from participating in spaces that participate in food production? Is this exclusion deliberate or overlooked?
• What actual barriers or perceived barriers exist that would cause someone to not participate in a local food production site? (i.e. race, class, socioeconomic status, ways of promoting the program, etc.)
• What is the role of the land in food projects? How is this space chosen? Who owns the land? What is the history of the space and what are the layers that compose that history?
• How is this program being utilized by local schools to create a space for children and teens to learn about science, the environment, composting and health?

I love backpacking, travel, reading, gardening, activism, hanging out with family and friends and being with my husband and our dog. I am excited for the future, but relishing learning to live wildly in the present.