Our educational goals span the entire community from early childhood education to high school students, college interns, and workshops for adults.

The flagship of our educational programs is the Summer Sustainability Institute. The SSI was a collaboration of La Mesita, Fat Duck Farm and Food and Shelter, and was funded with a grant from the McCune Foundation and private donors.

During the summers of 2006 and 2007 a group of high school students and faculty came to live at Fat Duck Farm in Ribera, NM. The central question of the summer was "How can we live more sustainably on this planet?" The students worked with mentors in the fields of green building, organic farming, renewable energy, and watershed restoration. The faculty and mentors were also working on their own research. Everyone cooked and ate together and the students and faculty presented their learnings in an exhibition at the end of the summer.

SSI video

coming soon!

We have also brought many school groups out to farms and green building sites, and have run an internship program to place college interns on organic farms.

Our future plans call for building a facility to house programs such as SSI year round and on a bigger scale.

Contact Us:

Food and Shelter

Eric Biderman, director

P.O. Box 411, Ribera, NM 87560

bidermaneric@yahoo.com