CSW Celebrates Earth Day with Food Justice Advocate Karen Washington
CSW marked Earth Day 2025 with a full-campus celebration led by the students and faculty of Sustainability Committee. The student-organized day featured a keynote assembly with acclaimed activist and urban farming pioneer Karen Washington, along with a diverse slate of hands-on workshops and activities designed to promote environmental awareness and sustainable living.
Washington, co-founder of Black Urban Growers and a longtime advocate for food sovereignty and equitable access to fresh food, delivered a powerful address during which she emphasized her contention that “hunger is a manmade problem.” Washington challenged the narratives of “food deserts” and “food insecurity,” instead reframing the issue as food apartheid, rooted in systemic racism, economic inequality, and corporate control. She emphasized that real food justice requires power shifting, community self-reliance, and land stewardship, advocating for local food systems, education, and cooperative economics as transformative tools.
The remainder of the morning was experiential and student-driven, with workshops and activities designed to explore environmental themes through science, art, social justice, and community action. Highlights included workshops on wax printing, DIY skincare, water chemistry, decarbonization, and birdwatching.
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CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.