Alicia Lopez-Torres
Program Manager
Alicia is a bilingual Spanish-speaking third-generation San Franciscan, an environmental activist, and musician. She went to Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania where she learned organic/sustainable/ regenerative agriculture from women and women of color all over the east coast & Midwest. She spent time at Alemany Farm in her summers learning high yield vegetable production. She has now finally returned to SF to bring the agricultural knowledge that was not always available to her as a youth. Her ultimate goal is to open youth up to the unconditional love that our earth provides for us. Alicia is the Program Manager for the Sprout Out Advocacy & Job Training program at Urban Sprouts.
Violeta Sandoval
Community Health Program Manager
Violeta Sandoval is a Community Health & Nutrition Education Program Manager at Urban Sprouts. She promotes adequate nutrition habits , Food justice and Healthy food practices by using seasonal and Food Bank ingredients.
Violeta demonstrates through interactive in-person and virtual classes that healthy eating is tasteful , interesting, inexpensive and beneficial. She encourages using seasonal and Food Bank ingredients such as vegetables, grains, herbs, veggie proteins and sometimes meats. She believes that food is attached to culture and family values.
With over 17 years of experience working with the Latino community, Violeta has received training about the immigrant mental health, emotional nutrition, Ayurveda medicine, aromatherapy, promoter of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, training related to the care and treatment of Child Development and management of chronic and acute diseases in the Latino community , among others. She has participated in the development of curricula to train promoters in community health and nutrition, food decolonization, participation in the book “Nuestras raices Saludables”, food recycling, soda tax projects with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, round table of the climate change with the California Environmental Protection Agency, development projects with the California Air Resources Board, coordinator of the Bay Area Vision and Compromiso committee.
Violeta has been interviewed by the Edible magazine in San Francisco “Kitchen Wisdom”, she received “the heart of the community” award, nomination for the “community love award”, interviews in post cats, radio and television. She also wrote the Book of recipes “ El Sabor de la Inspiracion, Recetas del Corazon”. Violeta graduated from The School of Culinary Arts in San Francisco.
Her hobbies include walking and enjoying the sea, the forest, read books on psychology and personal improvement , make jewelry by hand and plan family and community events.