As family dynamics change and communication lines are threatened, food culture serves as a way to link grandmother and granddaughter across generations.

My love affair with food began the day I grew out of being a picky eater. As a child, I tended to move my veggies to the side of my plate and preferred the label fast food over foodie. Since moving to Santa Cruz, I have learned to embrace foods of all shapes and sizes.

With the costs of food and a UC education rising, many students are having an increasingly hard time affording food, forcing them to find alternative methods of attaining meals. Some get crafty, while others utilize on- and off-campus resources.

Fueled by social media, pop-up restaurants and food trucks are becoming increasingly popular in the Bay Area and urban areas around the country.

Driving into the Santa Cruz Mountains it is often safer to focus on the winding road ahead than to look around you. But through the forest to either side of the highway is dispersed a vibrant community of viticulturalists and vintners involved in a renowned wine industry.

Arts and Entertainment writer Mitchell Bates gives a thumbs-up to the new Fleet Foxes album, “Helplessness Blues,” and critiques the lack of sizzle between the love interests in the Marvel Comics-based “Thor.”

The budget plan released by California Republicans is short-sighted and unrealistic. Rather than scrambling to control the state’s deficit without tax extensions, Republicans should allow voters to weigh in on the budget.

Friends of the Community Agroecology Network (FoCAN) recently held their sixth annual Fair Trade Marketplace, an event which hosted high school and college students from rural communities in Mexico and Nicaragua. It featured several local vendors dedicated to spreading awareness of sustainability and free trade.

In this week’s Community Chest, City on a Hill Press sat down with Amanda Timoney, a second-year from College Ten who is heading to Ghana.