Buck Kingman Initiative

Since the inception of the Beahrs ELP, the program has been sponsoring collaborative projects between ELP alumni and UC Berkeley faculty members. These projects are a perfect example of what can be accomplished when the program's faculty and alumni work together to expand the reach and impact of the program and its leaders.

Barry “Buck” Kingman, an alumnus of UC Berkeley, was killed in combat on December 29, 1968. After Buck’s death, a number of his friends created the Buck Kingman Fund at UC Berkeley to advance the efforts that reflect both his compassion and his belief in innovative change. By honoring Buck, through the Buck Kingman Initiatives, his legacy of caring and commitment to others could be enhanced in perpetuity thoughout the world. The Buck Kingman Initiative provided seed money to support collaborative conservation and sustainable development projects designed and implemented by ELP alumni together with UC Berkeley faculty. Since its creation in 2003, forty-three projects have been carried out; you can read more about the impact of just a couple such projects below.

Ghana School Feeding Programme

• Years: 2005-2011
• Alumni: Abenaa Akuamoa-Boateng (Ghana, ELP 2005), Daniel Mumuni (Ghana, ELP 2012), and David Rafael Flor (Ecuador, ELP 2007)
• UCB Collaborators: Haas School of Business International Business Development Teams and Hans Eeenhoorn (ELP Instructor)

In honor of his friend Buck Kingman, UC Berkeley alumnus Dick Beahrs sent multiple teams from Haas Business School's International Business Development program to Ghana to scale-up a school feeding pilot program of sixteen communities that Abenaa Akuamoa-Boateng (ELP 2005) initiated in 1993. Based on the use of locally-produced food, students are provided with at least one hot meal each day and smallholder farmers are getting access to a regular market, creating both an increase in education and economic development and a reduction in hunger and poverty. Since 2005, the Ghana School Feeding Program has expanded to 4,000 public schools in all of the districts in Ghana, benefiting over 1.8 million children every school day. Participation in this project inspired Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, graduates of the UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, to launch Revolution Foods, which now serves 2 million nutritious, fresh school meals every week to children in 14 states.

Building Capacity and a Network for Environmental Education for National Parks and Protected Areas in the South and Central Highlands of Vietnam

• Years: 2015 and 2017
• Alum: Huyen Do Thi Thanh (Vietnam, ELP 2014)
• UCB Collaborator: Susan Carpenter (Beahrs ELP Instructor)

These projects provided comprehensive training courses for national parks and protected areas staff on skills to develop, conduct, and monitor environmental education for different parks’ stakeholders. These projects contributed to nature conservation in Vietnam by enhancing capacity for environmental education for national parks and protected areas in the south and central highland of Vietnam, providing a forum for sharing experiences amongst national parks and protected areas staff, and broadening the availability of environmental education to teachers, students, tourists, local communities, leaders, and the public.

Upgrading and Monitoring Greywater Treatment Systems in the West Bank and Rural Arid Environments in Israel

• Year: 2010
• Alum: Shira Kronich (Israel, ELP 2009)
• UCB Collaborator: Kara Nelson (Professor of Environmental Engineering)

This project tested influent and effluent quality from 4 small-scale treatment plants, monitored their performance, and considered whether the effluent was of sufficient quality for home gardens and under green houses (to increase food independence). This work helped underserved people make full use of marginal water resources, ensured systems abide by both national and WHO reuse water quality standards, designed scalable systems for effluent end use, and proposed recommendations to improve system designs.