Isabela Vega

I found a women owned bakery and bagel shop last Summer and have since consistently returned and supported this business. I began going because it was all gluten free, but my family has always believed in supporting small businesses, especially those owned by women and people of color. Supporting such businesses are important to me because everyone has a life and often family to support, and some groups need a little more support and resources to achieve success when they are not a predominant group in a field.

Whenever I am with my family, we try eating with no electronics. My parents began this practice in order to help us take in each other's presence and company, so that we set aside time to be with each other with no distractions. They did not start this within our family to reduce food waste, but I now realize that doing this greatly reduces food waste. When we do not have electronics, we tend to eat the right amount of food without over serving ourselves or eating too much. I included some pictures of our plates at family parties with my family to show our a family oriented practice is actually environmentally favorable in terms of food waste, and I hope to continue this practice with my own family for both family and environmental motivations.

I wanted to go home and did not have a car up here. I decided to take the train from Union Station to Oceanside. The train was nice in that I did not have to wait in traffic and use more gas than normal during rush hour and was joined by many other people who opted for public transportation. The one con of this was I had to Uber from UCLA to Union Station since I did not have enough time to take the bus/metro during a short time period. The Uber took a while during rush hour, but I am happy I made a longer journey on public transportation. Being surrounded by others during new tasks makes me feel supported and hopeful in my actions. It was like a big carpool.

Over the weekend and Monday, I started trying to add more fruits and veggies to my meals and snacks. I am not a fan of cooking, so this challenge has made me start cooking and going grocery shopping. It has been easier to add fruits and veggies as snacks rather than meals since I can just eat them without incorporating them into a task I am already not fond of. I was able to buy a meal from a smoothie place with plentiful fruit too.

However, my next step will be trying to add more fruits and veggies to the meals I make. This small task is important to me because fruits and veggies require less water and land to grow and thus less greenhouse gases are released. I attached a photo with fruits and veggies of a meal I bought (yes I know next time I will make this homemade as a challenge).

I am here because I grew up by the beach and have grown to love the ocean. Growing up in San Diego versus going to college in LA, I noticed how cleaner and more beautiful the beaches in San Diego are. I hope to change little parts of my day to decrease carbon dioxide and greenhouse emission to preserve marine biodiversity and ocean conditions. I wish to grow old with beautiful oceans that are still safe to swim in, pretty to look at, and safe homes for marine life. The image I have attached is the beach in Carlsbad, California.