Help transform a trailer into a collective, solar-powered cold storage unit for a coalition of small farmers — eliminating cooler rental fees and giving campesin@ producers infrastructure they own and control.
Led by Technology for Liberation — a student engineering group at Stanford — in partnership with the Coalición de Pequeños Agricultores en California, this project converts a trailer into a mobile, solar-powered cold storage unit.
For small campesin@ producers, cooler rental fees represent a recurring cost that cuts directly into already thin margins — fees paid not to grow food, but simply to keep it from spoiling before it can be sold. This unit eliminates that dependency entirely, giving farmers collectively owned cold storage they control, powered by the sun.
The project brings together students with skills in electrical systems, solar design, and fabrication to solve a problem defined by the farmers themselves — a direct expression of the brigade model in action.
Panels, charge controllers, and batteries to power cooling units completely off-grid, independent of commercial power.
Insulation, electrical systems, and cooling unit installation — transforming a utility trailer into cold storage infrastructure.
Tools and materials for brigade members to design and build structural modifications alongside farmers.
The finished unit is owned collectively by the Coalición — not rented, not corporate-controlled. Built by students, owned by farmers.
Bay Area Engineering Brigades — Student-Small Farmer Interdependence Initiative.
Tech for Liberation, a Stanford student engineering group, is working directly with the Coalición to convert a utility trailer into a solar-powered mobile cold storage unit. The Coalición's farmers currently pay recurring cooler rental fees just to preserve their harvest — a direct extraction of value from already thin margins. This project eliminates that dependency.
Work includes solar system design, electrical installation, insulation, and cooling unit integration — a hands-on collaboration between student engineers and the farmers who will own the result.
Partners building this initiative
¡Vamos hacia la reforma agraria integral y popular!
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