Welcome BBQ: We Occupied La Jolla Shores!

The call went out, that on Wednesday September 28 all current and potential YAGgers would march to my house and Occupy La Jolla Shores Drive (in past years known as the Welcome BBQ). And more than 50 young adults heeded the message. Even Father Patrick lent his priestly presence.

We protested the unluckiness of the 99% who don't live in San Diego, and celebrated the arrival of Fall and new members of the YAG community.

We raged and set things ablaze--in specific a grill where we roasted burgers and veggie burgers.

We shouted loudly as we sang Nirvana songs on guitar hero--and some of us were not even booed off stage.

We had a list of demands which included both Stone and Karl Strauss beverages. The demands were met, and we consumed both of those San Diego local favorites for which the world has come to envy our Finest City.

At the end of the day, those who had stuck out the protests till the end marched down to the beach to observe the dying embers of the ocean's bioluminescence, and we declared solidarity and the start of something even bigger: a whole year to come of great YAG events with some of the best people you will meet in the best town on the planet.

Even if there was poor news coverage of our gathering, indeed at least it made the blogs...

-by Ben Jammin

San Onofre Campout

For the second straight year, we did our summer camping trip at San Onofre State Beach in late August. Only an hour away (in no traffic; more for those catching Friday rush hour), this is a fun getaway right over the border in Orange County.

On our 24 hours away from home not everything went perfectly. There were not enough tents, so some people slept out. The military was doing a practice artillery session all night, so we occasionally heard deep thudding of shells in addition to the rambunctious Boy Scout troop in the site next door. And there were no marshmallows so we instead roasted cheese croissants. This was Tiffany's idea, and it worked really well.  

Other than that, it was classic SoCal beach camping. Some picnicking on the beach, some camaraderie around the campfire, and yes, of course, surfing at the legendary Trestles surf break. You've seen the "save trestles" bumper stickers. You probably even have one...well, it was my first time at the break, and it is worth the hype.  

Perfect wave shape, and enough size for summer, combined with perfect weather and few crowds meant the best surfing of the summer. We did an evening session the first night, which ended in a glorious sunset. And a morning session and an afternoon session the next day. And yes, the train does go right by the beach there... 

Non-surfers stayed busy averting their eyes from the sinfully well-built surfers surrounding them. Some went for barefoot beach runs. I'm not sure what others did, maybe painted their toenails? We all ate exquisite cuisine that various people contributed to bringing. In any case, eventually the sun wore us out and we packed it up but not before a good weekend was in the record books.

- Ben Horne

Welcome BBQ and Fall Retreat Scheduled

YAGGERS,

The YAG Core Team met this Thursday to plan out some YAG events for this Fall and beyond. Here are the highlights for Fall. There are more (including our recurring events Second Sunday Supper and Third Tuesday Taize), but these are the imminent ones. Please help us welcome new Young Adults and Graduate Students at the two welcome events coming up.

Welcome Mass and BBQ 

Sun, September 25, 3pm – 5pm

Where: Stonehedge, UCSD

Come look for us! We'll probably have a table or something. Say 'hi'.

YAG Welcome BBQ

Wed, September 28, 6pm – 9pm

Where: Ben Horne's House

We'd like to welcome all the Young Adults back from summer vacations and breaks by throwing a Welcome BBQ bash at Ben's Beach Pad. If you'd like, bring some home-cooked goodness or drinks to share. I hope this is a good way to get back in the swing of things and welcome those of us that are new to town or have been here a while but are new to our community.

YAG Fall Retreat

Fri, October 21 – Sun, October 23

Where: Foster Lodge, Cuyamaca Mountains

The retreat this year will be at Foster Lodge again, 1 hour East of San Diego. Last year, we had almost 30 people come. All are welcome. The theme this year will center around The Road to Emmaus. A small retreat team, including Father JP will coordinate the retreat talks and activities. Please come, lead a discussion, help with food, etc. Another email will be sent out soon, but mark your calendars!

- Huy

Burundi Friends International - Thank you!!!

Thank you to all who showed up this morning especially the YAGs shout out to Diana Meisenholder, Teresa Chu, Aaron Day, Christina Tsutsumi, Yvette Longduriyang, Mathew Kappiello, David Diaz, and Major Nguyen.

In the words of Barbara "we literally could not have done it with out the help of those YAGs!" In an effort to express my gratitude I have created the below picture :)

YAGs helping pack clothes, book, and teaching supplies for our brothers and sisters in Burundi.

And I leave you with one of my favvy quotes, which I thinks speaks to this project well: ''Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.'
- M. Mead

Thank you all soooooo much.

- Michelle Bernabe

Your Summer With YAG

YAG events don't stop during Summer! Our monthly dinners (Second Sunday Supper) are scheduled and so is Third Tuesday Taize. Remember to keep up with the blog and calendar (http://ucsdyags.blogspot.com) and this mailing list for details.

Also, since Newman Center ongoing Social Justice activities are really lean during the Summer months, it is a good opportunity to get involved in that area too. I will try to pass along information I get from Maureen (Social Justice Coordinator) and others about those activities when they need bodies. Thank you for your time, generosity, and energy.

Here are the highlights:

June

6/19 - Second Sunday Supper (on the third Sunday)

6/21 - Third Tuesday Taize

6/25 - Gospel Music Festival at the San Diego Fair

July

7/10 - Second Sunday Supper

7/15 - Padre's Game

7/19 - Third Tuesday Taize

August

8/6 - Banana Split & Movie in the Park, Standley Community Park

8/14 - Second Sunday Supper

8/16 - Third Tuesday Taize

8/26 thru 8/28 - YAG Beach Camping in San Onofre State Beach

Bridging The Food Gap

“So there are three basic rules to dumpster diving:

1. First one to the dumpster has first dibs
2. Never take more than you need
3. Leave it cleaner than you found it.”

These were the opening words of film director Jeremy Seifert in the multi-award winning documentary DIVE!, which was shown on May 15, 2011 during an event co-hosted by YAG and the Newman Center Social Justice Committee. As the film depicted, dumpster diving is simply the act of scavenging the dumpsters to find any good, edible food for consumption. There is definitely an inherent intrigue to such an act, or shall we say, art, of recovering perfectly good food from the trash and later serving it at the table. Can you imagine eating a freshly grilled cheeseburger, or a fancy blood orange salmon dinner with strawberry shortcake dessert, all prepared from ingredients collected from your local grocery store’s dumpsters? This may sound gross, but this was the reality that the DIVE! filmmakers lived.

UCSD Catholic Community watching DIVE!, an award-winning documentary about food waste.

To the twenty people who attended the screening, it was definitely a shocking lesson to learn about the tons of good food discarded by grocery stores each day. If an entire carton of eggs contains even one cracked egg, it is thrown out. If an entire bag of fruit contains just one bad apple, it is thrown out. If a package of meat shows even the slightest shade of brown, but is nowhere near spoilage, it is thrown out. If it’s one day prior to the posted expiration date (which in itself is a gross underestimate of when the food actually spoils), the food is thrown out. This is the fate that perishable food items face. However, all this food can still be healthily consumed by people, as demonstrated by the practices of the filmmakers.

The film then creatively exposed how “we feed our landfills more than we feed our country.” In a nutshell, the United States throws out 263 million pounds of food each day while millions across the nation struggle to find their next meal. This is where we as a community can step in to help. After the documentary was shown, we introduced our project dubbed, “Bridging the Food Gap,” and our mission to mitigate hunger by mitigating food waste. The film inspired our plan of action, which involves getting our local grocery stores to redirect food from their dumpsters to the hungry people in San Diego. And this doesn’t just mean the homeless. Low income families, refugees, migrant workers, senior citizens, and maybe even your next door neighbor, are all people who could use this food.

This task seems straightforward enough, but the film and our own experiences revealed otherwise. Store directors at some grocery stores are actually hesitant to release the soon-to-be disposed of food items due to potential liability. Little do they know there is this amazing saving grace called the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1996, and it protects food donors from this liability, provided there are no cases of gross negligence. Thus, there is hope to execute our mission, and two of the attendees at the event attested to this hope. Tina DiStefano from the Catholic Workers was present and informed us that Trader Joe’s in Pacific Beach generously donates their perishable foods to food recovery efforts. The Catholic Workers even host Friday lunches for the hungry using the donated food. Another attendee, Sandy Lippe, who coordinates our visits with Storefront Ministry for homeless teens, is also a member of the University City Community Association. She has put us in touch with representatives of Councilwoman Sherri Lightner and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher to help us get the ball rolling on the political end. Rest assured, we’ve got some motivated people willing to help us out. Our project includes other endeavors as well, such as serving with So Others May Eat, distributing lunches to the hungry downtown, and even some dumpster diving missions. So if you find yourself thinking twice before throwing away that browning banana and want to join us as we tackle the Goliaths of the food industry, feel free to email Liezel (like a gazelle) at liezel.labios@gmail.com . Help bridge the food gap.

-Liezel

DIVE!

In San Diego, over 480,000 people among us go hungry: children, senior citizens, the unemployed, the homeless, and even students. Meanwhile, 263 million pounds of good, edible food are sent to America’s landfills every day. How can we as a community work together to bridge this disparity? Join YAG and the Social Justice Committee on May 15th at Roetter Hall after 12:30pm mass to watch the multi-award winning documentary DIVE! and discuss efforts we can make to mitigate food waste by mitigating hunger. Refreshments will be served.