APTOS >> Throughout this semester, Cabrillo College’s Horticulture Department is partnering with different groups to screen films that highlight the importance of natural food.

This month, the department is partnering with the school’s Umoja Club — a network for Black students that celebrates self-identity and diversity — for a screening of the 2023 documentary “Farming While Black,” which showcases the history of resilience of Black farmers throughout the United States, particularly for a new generation seeking to reclaim their regenerative agricultural heritage considering the number of Black farmers has dwindled over the past century.

Department Chair Sarah Patiño Hulick said the idea for these screenings came from edible landscaping professor Mimi Schilling who typically has taken her class on community field trips to give them a better understanding of food production. However, for the first time this year, the edible landscaping class is a dual enrollment course where students from Cabrillo’s Delta High School program can take college courses.“Because of matching that high school schedule, the class sessions are kind of short,” said Patiño Hulick.

Schilling decided that since field trips were not conducive to the 80-minute timeframe, the department would host community film screenings to highlight the various concepts covered in her class, including agriculture, food sovereignty and horticulture. The screenings kicked off in January with “Kiss the Ground,” Josh and Rebecca Tickell’s 2020 documentary about regenerative farming and its role in combating climate change.

Patiño Hulick said the Jan. 28 screening went very well and served as an informational session for enrolled horticulture students to meet their instructors. The idea to screen “Farming While Black” came about after the film’s subject, Leah Penniman, hosted a discussion on her book of the same name at Bookshop Santa Cruz.

“Mimi had the vision to partner with Umoja as part of Black Excellence Month,” she said. “It just seemed like the perfect film for those two things.”

“Farming While Black” highlights the current state of Black farming in America. In 1910, Black farmers made up approximately 14% of all farmers, but that number has decreased to less than 2% as of the 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture. The film centers around Penniman, the co-founder of Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, and two other Black farmers’ efforts to reclaim their agricultural heritage. “Farming While Black” was an official selection at the 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival, 2024 San Francisco International Film Festival, South by Southwest’s 2024 EDU Conference & Festival and received the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2024 Filmteenth Film Festival in Pasadena.

Ariba Alston-Williams, Umoja’s student service coordinator, said the film ties in with Umoja’s Black Excellence Month, which has hosted events throughout the month celebrating Black culture.

“Food is a huge part of the African American culture,” she said. “We do a lot of things centered around food. We showcase our love in food, and farming is something that historically Black people have done very well. One of the reasons why we kept getting imported over here was to work the land, so keeping up with that and the changes in time and accessibility actually owning our own land and cultivating, it has been challenging.”

Alston-Williams said “Farming While Black” showcases the bind Black farmers have been in over the past century and highlights the need for people to go “back to the basics” and plant their own food if they want to ensure healthiness.

Mikias Abesha, president of the Umoja Club and an international student from Ethiopia, said farming is a major part of his country’s culture and people’s incomes, especially in rural areas.

“People have farms in their backyards,” he said. “They have big land farms where they have different kinds of crops, and they also have cows and chickens. That’s their source of income.”

Even in larger cities like Addis Ababa, where Abesha grew up, he said the produce and meats sold at markets come from rural farms.

“All the stuff that is made, it comes from the rural areas and is sold in the city,” he said. “There’s big markets, one is specifically for vegetables, and one is specifically for different goods. For vegetables, there’s a spot called Piazza. That’s where all the goods come from: from the rural areas of the country.”

During the screening, audiences can purchase a dinner of jerk chicken bowls featuring ingredients provided by the horticulture program. Chef Kristofer Evans will be preparing jerk chicken over pilaf rice and black beans and topped with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, butternut squash and cilantro lime crema. He chose the bowl because it represents resilience and culture.

“The roots of jerk chicken itself actually traces back to self-liberated Africans who used cooking as a means of survival and resistance,” he said.

Alston-Williams said the meal will “give a taste of the culture and all the good things that reconnecting with the land has to offer and bringing back the joy of cultivating your own food.”

While the bowls are $8, Schilling said people can bring in their own snacks if they prefer.

“We’re not a traditional movie theater, so we don’t have the rules,” she said.

Although Schilling encourages audience members to make responsible snack choices, she said they may bring in whatever snacks they want.

In March, the department will partner with the Watsonville Film Festival for a movie called “Leading Change” about farming communities protecting each other and the environment and feature a salad bar with ingredients provided by Esperanza Farms. In April, the department will partner with chef Christina Lonewolf, who has prepared meals for the Big Sur Food & Wine Festival and Esselen Harvest Festival, for a screening of “Gather” about the revitalization of Indigenous food systems.

Schilling said audiences can take a lot of things away from these films.

“We want people to come together, learn about food production from a variety of perspectives, engage in conversation and think meaningfully about where their food comes from, both the people and the place,” she said.

“Farming While Black” will be screened 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Cabrillo College Horticulture Center, Room 5005, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. Tickets are free and can be reserved at BrownPaperTickets.com, although there is an extra charge for the meals served should attendees purchase them. For more information on Cabrillo’s Food Film Showcase, go to Cabrillo.edu/horticulture/2025-food-film-showcase-2.