Wild Plants & Medicinals Walk with forageSF

Discover the world of wild plants and their medicinal uses on this guided walking tour through San Francisco, led by the experts at forageSF! Explore the city’s natural landscapes, learn to identify local wild foods, medicinal plants, and edible flowers. Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or a curious beginner, this walk offers a unique opportunity to connect with nature and deepen your understanding of the powerful plants growing right in your backyard!

Details

• Duration: 2 - 3 hours
• Meeting Location: Golden Gate Park at the Kezar Stadium gate (crossroads Arguello Blvd and Lincoln Way), see the picture below
• Maximum Number Of Participants: 20
• Price: to reduce potential financial barriers, FAACTS is supplementing the cost of this course, which is normally priced at $90

Contact Information: For any questions or additional information, please contact us at [email protected].

About forageSF

forageSF was founded by Iso Rabins in 2008 with the mission of teaching people about this amazing, natural world that surrounds us. They believe that the more people know about the place they live, the more they want to protect it. In service of that mission, they organize classes on everything from mushroom hunting to seaweed foraging all over Northern CA. Over the past decade they have taught thousands of eager students, from age eight to eighty, to cultivate an appreciation for what nature provides.

About Our Guide - Erin Mckinsey

Erin McKinsey is an herbalist, natural products scientist, and educator who lives in Sonoma County. She currently works as a scientist for Traditional Medicinals Tea Company. She has taught field herbalism and foraging courses for over a decade for various organizations in Southern Oregon, including Siskiyou Field Institute, Search and Rescue, Ashland Parks and Recreation, as well as many others. She also worked as a clinical herbalist for the Mederi Center in Ashland, Oregon, for over four years. When she isn’t working in the lab or scoping out plants on a hike, she enjoys taking ceramics classes and seeing live music.  She also has an 11-year-old daughter named Lily that she likes to adventure with.

About FAACTS

In May 2022, more than a dozen representatives from community organizations sprang into action when they learned $45 million was to be cut from the budget of the City and County of San Francisco, essentially all of the food security funding provided by the Human Services Agency (HSA). These funding cuts would affect the nutrition needs of at least 70,000 families across the city. Through the direct advocacy of this ad hoc coalition of HSA grantees and food justice groups, funding was restored to the city budget through the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Since its inception, FAACTS has achieved significant milestones, including:

• Preserving $85 million in funding for citywide food access programming
• Organizing the first-ever SF Food Action Summit where over 200 people started on a path to create a good food system
• Empowering hospitality industry workers through a Worker’s Rights Training co-hosted with The Women’s Building and Trabajadores Unidos 

FAACTS Values

We believe our food system can only be changed through radical collaboration. We reject the scarcity mindset that pits organizations against each other in a competition for resources and funding in favor of embracing abundance. We affirm that we are responsible to one another, that we are connected to the land and to rural communities who labor for our city’s benefit, and we affirm that active participation and engagement are necessary for systems change work.

Our values guide our actions and decision making to establish healthy, resilient communities with equitable access to nourishing, culturally appropriate food, land, and control over their means of production.

• Access: From sourcing to distribution to food waste management, food access must be a holistic, non-transactional and dignified experience for all, rooted in communal and individual autonomy across communities.

• Justice: Food systems issues are a human rights issue. Solutions need to address systemic inequities to empower individual agency and community-led resilience and accountability.  

• Racial equity: Informed  by our understanding of the historical and systemic racial inequities of San Francisco, our food coalition centers racial equity by ensuring decision making, investment, and leadership are representative/inclusive of communities most affected. 

• Sovereignty: Our coalition supports and advances an interconnected, community-centered, accessible, and abundant value chain that fosters agency, dignity, and health for San Francisco.

• Sustainability: Bringing about a food system that is inclusive, community-led and participatory without the exploitation of people, land, or the environment.
• Decolonization: We acknowledge that our food system exists within capitalism, and we aim to decouple the profit motive inherent in colonial/white culture from food. Food is essential. We work to be in reciprocity and respect with our food, the land it comes from, and the Indigenous people who are the land's true stewards.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Arguello Boulevard & Lincoln Way, 98 Lincoln Way, San Francisco, United States