Integrated Rainwater to Food Systems for Santa Cruz Pilot Fund

Pilot Program Goals

The overarching goal of this pilot program is to design and build integrated rainwater to food

systems as part of a larger effort to study how the Santa Cruz community could benefit from the

deployment of such systems. We will measure how long rainwater tanks can irrigate gardens under local

conditions and with locally popular crops. Will study a number of methods for conserving water. We will

work with community members to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and cost of rain

to food system to assess if Santa Cruz wide deployment is warranted. We will document user experience

and build educational demonstration systems in local schools. Data and experience collected from this

program will help to build foundations for local sustainable policy advocacy in Santa Cruz and to apply

for larger funding opportunities. Our team is diverse, multifaceted, interdisciplinary, and harnesses the

creative vision and energy of undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and builds on existing community

relationships with local schools.

Activities and approach

A. Design, Testing, and Optimization (Y1: 2023-2024). Undergraduates from the Impact Designs:

Engineering, Art and Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) program will lead the design of the

rainwater to food system. Our starting point will be a 600 gallon tank gravity feeding a 4x8 garden bed

with drip irrigation. With careful water management and planting techniques, estimates suggest a 600

gallon tank could irrigate a 4x8 garden bed for 7 months [1] which would irrigate the bed for the entire

Santa Cruz dry season (April through October) and would enable food to be grown locally using only

rainwater. However, these are only estimates that need to be measured more precisely for Santa Cruz,

and for different crops. We also seek to test techniques for maximally conserving water. We will build a

series of identical systems in the Oakes garden and UCSC Village. Students from IDEASS will measure and

compare water usage under the following conditions: 1) garden encapsulated in a greenhouse, 2)

regular additions of compost, 3) mixing soil with wood chips as a form of compost, 4) polycropping and

using dense planting techniques, 5) application of mycelial compost teas.

B. Deployment, Documenting Community Experience, and Educational Tools (Y2: 2024-2025).

Building on the experience of the Seed Spoon Science program (see Prof Leauthaud Bio), we will recruit 8

participating families to the program from De Laveaga elementary. Families will work with students from

the IDEASS program to design and build a 4x8 garden bed at each home. Based on the experience

developed in phase A), students will work with families to create a productive garden bed and will

document user experience. In particular, students will create a video about families' experience with the

program that will serve to motivate program expansion and support policy advocacy work. Documenting

community experience with these systems will be a great asset to build the case for policy changes and

program expansion. In collaboration with DeLaveaga Principal Hua, students will build a demonstration

system at the Life Lab garden at DeLaveaga elementary as well as at the Pacific elementary school in

Davenport. In addition, students will also create an educational video documenting lessons learned,

installation techniques, and lessons learned that will be shared with community members.

C. Study Community Benefits to Build Case for New Policies. In addition to this action oriented and

practical program, incoming UCSC Cota Robles graduate fellow Hinojoza, Campell, Leauthaud, Heady,

Scott, and Minardi will study how many homes in Santa Cruz could be outfitted with rainwater to food systems (taking into account lot size, roof area, etc). In this study, we will assume that at-home gardens

are great incentives for community members to engage in at-home composting, rather than sending

green-waste to landfills or the city composting program. We will study how much green waste could be

recycled directly into home gardens and how much irrigation (and the embodied costs of food

production and transportation as well as waste processing) water could be conserved. This could help

Santa Cruz meet Senate Bill (SB) 1383 [2] which requires that, statewide, 20% of edible food that would

otherwise be disposed of be recovered by human consumption by 2025. Finally, we will also estimate

savings in water and grocery costs and compare them with material costs. This work will be written up

as a publication and will be shared with Santa Cruz City and County. This work will lay the foundations

for potential policy changes such as subsidized rain barrels, garden beds, and home composting systems.

Significance: 

Our program would allow for more rainwater to be harvested, more organic food to be

grown locally, a greater engagement in the community with sustainable practices, and would reduce

methane emissions by encouraging people to use compost in home gardens. This program would

especially benefit lower income community members because, once built, rainwater to food systems

can lead to savings in water and grocery costs (exact number to be estimated from this program). This

pilot program will work with latinx families and undergraduates and thus promotes equity and social

justice both at the community and undergraduate level.

Impact: This program aligns with key goals of the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience. These include

food security, freshwater supply, human health, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (keeping bio

waste out of landfills). Project outcomes will be shared with the wider public via our relationship with

local schools, the school demo system at DeLaveaga and Pacific Elementary, our community partners,

the installation videos that we will create, publications, and policy documents. Our longer term goals are

to scale up this program in collaboration with Santa Cruz city. We are also seeking funding from the

Packard foundation (we passed phase 1) for continued funding of Seed Spoon Science which would fund

salaries for participating undergraduate latinx STEM students (the Packard proposal however only funds

the DEI components of this work, not the rain tank work). Students could be enrolled in this program for

credit, or in Seed Spoon Science for salary, or a combination of both. Results from this proposal will help

motivate a larger proposal to the Packard Foundation.