Author: Acta Non Verba Volunteer Coordinator

Breanna Madison

Breanna believes community engagement is an important way to enact change and the work of Camp ANV is reflective of that. Breanna was a camp counselor for CAMP ANV’s first virtual summer program and is currently a counselor for the after school program. Her position entails tutoring the elementary students and assisting with the virtual cooking, writing, science, and art clubs. Breanna is senior at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia majoring in Political Science and minoring in English. Once she graduates from college, she plans on attending law school to focus on civil rights and constitutional law. In her free time, she enjoys listening to music, drawing, and painting. As an Oakland native, Breanna is excited to be home for the semester and is looking forward to meeting new students and taking part in Camp ANV’s educational and interactive programs.

Remi & Angela Bereola

Remi & Angela Bereola are the proud parents of Adanya (9) and Kaden (7) Bereola. As a family, they enjoy travel, learning, spending time in nature, playing games, and enjoying music. The kids love biking, making and discovery, creating arts and crafts, singing and dancing, and playing retro video games.

The Bereola family was initially drawn to Camp ANV’s mission of providing education and access to healthy food through urban farming. Upon enrollment in the 2019 summer camp, they were introduced to a broad range of new experiences, including farming, growing and preparing produce for meals, exploring different cultures, and weekly field trips, including a fun family camping excursion. As ANV was forced to pivot due to the pandemic, The Bereolas were particularly impressed by how they managed to create such a personal, engaging, and interactive experience for campers in a virtual setting. They were also richly blessed by the invitation to participate in the weekly Farm Fridays, which provided the unexpected benefits of soul care, healing, catharsis and community for their family in this time of pandemic, political turmoil, and social unrest.

Rachel Ruiz

Rachel is a happy and proud first generation Peruana who was raised in Long Beach, California. Growing up, she quickly began to realize the power and knowledge that exists within families and communities. With this, came an understanding that there is a prominent struggle that exists in accessing and achieving food and health. While attending the University of California, Santa Cruz as an Environmental Studies major, Rachel recognized that existing Indegenous knowledge and community knowledge was boundlessly valuable in understanding how social structures can be dismantled and reshaped. As a third year student, she became involved with Friends of Community Agroecology Network (foCAN) where she learned so much about urban farming and gardening, seed saving, and building community. She found that there was a much deeper intersection between environmental justice and social justice that she was interested in exploring. She began a second major in Community Studies, where she was able to begin a long term internship and relationship with a community organization of her choice. Rachel found Acta Non Verba and was so inspired by the people behind it and the work that they were doing.  She believes that at its core, ANV is fundamental in challenging wider institutional structures, which have excluded Brown, and especially Black people, from land stewardship and direct relationships with the food system.

She began with ANV as a summer camp counselor, and enjoyed all of the activities and education involved with camp. Once summer was over, she spent many days volunteering at the Tassa farm, where she learned so much about food production and food sovereignty. More recently, she has joined the Beetbox CSA team, where she helps with coordination, packaging, and distribution of the weekly CSA produce. Rachel is forever grateful and happy to be part of ANV’s diverse and knowledgeable team. She is excited to continue learning about and contributing to empowering community work.

DEBRAH R. GILES

Debrah Giles is a philanthropic and non-profit management professional that serves as a Senior Program Officer for the East Bay Community Foundation in Oakland, CA.  She specializes in supporting initiatives with in EBCF that foster education and youth development.  In her role, she serves as the Senior Program Officer for The Clorox Company Foundation’s Responsive Grantmaking Program and continues to lead the work that focuses on Boys & Men of Color. 

Prior to joining the East Bay Community Foundation, Debrah had over 14 years of experience working for Sun Microsystems in their Global Community Development Group (Foundation) managing all aspects of their national and regional grant-making programs.  She was responsible for regional and field management in community relations and volunteer projects. She also developed and guided major funding programs, such as their International Disaster Relief, Multi-year Educational Grants and global gift matching programs.  She was also involved in managing, coordinating and developing strategies for improving their grant processing and the facilitation of regional grants. 

Debrah received her bachelor’s degree in Business Management from St. Mary’s College.  She is a native of Oakland and lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.

Tony “Chicago” Bennett

Tony “Chicago” Bennett was born and raised in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.  He came to California in 1989 for the Navy and was stationed in Oakland for 9 years.  Although Chicago is new to agriculture and farming he is a valuable part of the BeetBox team and community for the past 3 years.

Althea Raiford

Althea Raiford is a 20 year Navy veteran, farmer, sister, friend and list goes on.  She presently works as Physical Security Specialist (think cameras and security systems) for the federal government, prior to this she was Police Officer for over 10 years.  Her and her brother, Matthew Raiford are 6th generation farmers in Brunswick, GA.  Her passions are making quilts, good food, her family and framily (friends she considers family).

Mandela Grocery Coop

Unlike conventional supermarkets and grocery stores, Mandela is operated, centrally governed, and democratically controlled by our worker-owners. Our structure and operations are guided by cooperative principles and a strong community centered mission.

Kirin Basra

Kirin is a passionate and experienced Food Scientist with a demonstrated history of developing and commercializing nutritious products by combining creativity, culinary arts, and food technology to meet consumers dietary needs.  Kirin has worked in research and development roles with large corporations and independent entrepreneurs in multiple food categories — dairy beverages/powders, fermented foods, non-dairy alternatives, refrigerated entrees, and shelf-stable meal kits.  She currently works for Fonterra Cooperative Group, providing technical guidance to clients in the dairy industry.

Outside of work, Kirin focuses on identifying opportunities to serve the community through resolving issues related to food insecurity and teaching nutrition education to empower individuals to make healthier choices while remaining within their budget constraints.  She is currently studying Ayurveda, which is based on the philosophy that disease is due to an imbalance or stress in a person’s consciousness.  Through lifestyle changes and natural therapies, one can regain balance between the mind, body and spirit.  Kirin hopes to incorporate the practices of Ayurveda into programming for local community centers.

She is a Bay Area native, born and raised in Vallejo and resides in Oakland.  She spends her free time with family/friends, hiking and practicing yoga.