Becoming Locavores, One Locally Grown Meal at a Time

Kimberly Leeds wants her neighbors to feel more connected to one another.

“Connections create resilience,” said Leeds, an Aliso Viejo resident. “We’re going to have to re-evaluate how we live our lives. When oil gets really expensive, food costs will rise. We are not sustainable at this point.”

In September 2011, Leeds started holding potlucks to raise awareness about “creating community through resilience.”  With a steering committee of nine members, she introduced the Transition Movement to Aliso Viejo.

This movement, which is taking place in more than 1,000 communities worldwide, involves transitioning toward lower energy consumption due to climate change and decreasing supplies of fossil fuels.

“It’s about evaluating where our food comes from,” Leeds said, “and learning to make better choices.”

To help residents become locavores, people who eat food that is grown locally, members of Transition Aliso Viejo are helping each other install backyard gardens. Under the guidance of Karen Wilson, a master gardener with the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, a workgroup of 10 Transition members performs the labor for each garden.

Leeds admits that each homeowner can’t grow everything they need, so she is encouraging them to share or trade what they grow with their neighbors.

“We can become more inter-connected,” said Leeds, who stresses that Transition is not a political movement. “Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, it’s about making it so you and your family can feed yourself and be able to subsist.”

Growing up in Laguna Beach, Leeds’ first job was at The Stand, a natural foods restaurant on Thalia Street. It was there that she first started to question where her food was coming from.

While living in Peru as an exchange student and traveling throughout Europe after college, Leeds said she “saw the relationship between people and the land.”

Leeds served as education director for the Laguna Canyon Foundation for seven years. During that time, she wrote a curriculum with California Standards that allowed students to come in the park to learn about food chains and food webs. This program is still being used for schools who visit the park.

Six years ago, Leeds became involved with Transition Laguna Beach and still attends many of their activities.

“Members help each other re-learn skills that have been forgotten for generations, as well as provide a network of friendships that make each family stronger and well-supported,” she said.

The Transition Movement emerged from the Kinsale Energy Descent Plan, which was developed in 2005 by educator Rob Hopkins and his students at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. It was the first strategic community planning document of its kind, looking at creative adaptations in food, farming, education, economics and health.

In 2006, Hopkins took his work to the community when he started the first Transition town in Totnes, England. The movement quickly spread around the world as other communities copied the model.

In addition to starting Transition Aliso Viejo, Leeds is helping residents of Irvine to start the movement there.

“I have a longing for a sense of deep connection to others in our community where people work together,” Leeds said. “Everyone has different gifts that they can offer. That’s what makes community.”

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For more information on Transition Aliso Viejo’s monthly potlucks or other events, visit transitionalisoviejo.org.