My name is Kerry, and I am a public and community service major at Providence College, which means that I spend a lot of my time in the community of Providence, Rhode Island, engaging in reflective volunteer service. Last year, I acted as a community liaison between my college and City Farm, a ¾ acre pesticide-free urban garden in South Providence. City Farm grows loads of veggies and flowers for farmers markets, meal kitchens, and local restaurants. Though this hands-on experience, I learned about the importance of local and organic food, and how investing in this movement will help to create the world I want to see. I realized that people in my neighborhood and on my campus, like me, were disconnected from their food sources, and that this was normal. As many of you can relate, I became a little food-obsessed, and I found others who shared my fascination. How radically simple an idea to grow food for yourself and your friends! Around this time, friends of mine were researching the feasibility of creating a community garden on campus. A small group of about 6 interested students, the “garden group,” met periodically to talk about our shared vision. (PC does not have a local foods initiative, nor an environmental studies major [yet]. The few people who are passionate about these issues, when working together, demonstrate the ability to bring about change on a very grassroots level, but the process is slow.) Little by little, a project took shape. A nearby church donated a ½ acre grassy parking lot. Soil was tested for contaminants by sending a sample to the University of Massachusetts soil testing facility. For an urban area, the soil was miraculously low in lead and contaminant levels! We secured space, a small group of dedicated student gardeners, supporting faculty and staff… but the garden wasn’t on our campus. What would we grow, and who would benefit from this little green oasis? Greater community involvement was essential. The garden group started talking to neighbors and small businesses in the area, to discover how people would feel about a garden. The local health center and youth center expressed the most interest. The garden project developed because we celebrated and utilized community assets (students, community groups, and small businesses) and identified potential (abandoned lots) to eventually meet community needs. Three students involved in the garden group graduated, but stayed in the Smith Hill area to continue work on the garden. (As you know, a challenge of organizing in college settings is that people graduate or leave for semester breaks before projects can really get underway. In this case, the dedication of these individuals ensured the sustainability of the project.) The students partnered with a neighborhood action network called the Smith Hill Community Congress, and a committee developed to oversee funding and direction of the garden. Since then, the Providence After School Alliance has teamed with the garden group to create a summer youth program centered on gardening and sustainability. Check out the Community Congress’s progress herehttp://communitycongress.blogspot.com/. This process took more than a year, and we still have a ways to go. We hope that the garden will provide hands-on learning for both college students and residents of the neighborhood. We hope that students who see food growing locally and organically will stop to think about where their food comes from, especially in our dining halls. And we hope that it will bring people together who otherwise wouldn’t interact. Everybody’s got to eat, right? Two years ago, members of the Providence College chapter of Amnesty International campaigned to change our campus coffee distributor to a fair trade-certified brand. We were relieved to find out that the existing coffee distributor had a fair trade certified option, and a simple letter to our cafeteria manager secured a fair trade option in both cafeterias. We declared this a small victory, but knew we were not finished. Nevertheless, we were dismayed to find that our excitement about fair trade didn’t make its way around our campus of 4,000 undergrads. We observed that students didn’t choose the fair trade option coffee, complete with the green indicator leaf and title in italics. They chose the old brown coffee dispenser with the conventional coffee and boring label. Why? Ethical consumption was not a priority because, honestly, no one suggested it be one. Because Amnesty members were at capacity tackling too many other campaigns, we overlooked the importance of campus education around fair food. Very few groups on campus are talking about fair food. Before we can talk to decision makers or work with food providers, fair food has to become part of the campus culture. Hope lies in the most unexpected places, like parking lots. Last semester, the environmental studies class worked with a local farm to make our school a CSA pick-up site. Now, faculty, students, and staff receive local veggies every week. Here lies an opportunity: a group of people, invested in local food, waiting in a parking lot every Tuesday afternoon for their fennel and squash. What conversations could begin? The movement grows from here, from classrooms, from volunteer service at urban gardens, from stepping off campus, and from conversations. I am wondering: How have other student groups formed relationships with the community beyond campus walls? I feel like we are in an unusual predicament in that we have outside community support, but lack support from the campus body, administrators, and academic groups. We have a lot of outreach to do. Any ideas to help us out?
Peace! Kerry
say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.(w.berry)
My name is Kerry, and I am a public and community service major at Providence College, which means that I spend a lot of my time in the community of Providence, Rhode Island, engaging in reflective volunteer service. Last year, I acted as a community liaison between my college and City Farm, a ¾ acre pesticide-free urban garden in South Providence. City Farm grows loads of veggies and flowers for farmers markets, meal kitchens, and local restaurants. Though this hands-on experience, I learned about the importance of local and organic food, and how investing in this movement will help to create the world I want to see. I realized that people in my neighborhood and on my campus, like me, were disconnected from their food sources, and that this was normal. As many of you can relate, I became a little food-obsessed, and I found others who shared my fascination. How radically simple an idea to grow food for yourself and your friends! Around this time, friends of mine were researching the feasibility of creating a community garden on campus. A small group of about 6 interested students, the “garden group,” met periodically to talk about our shared vision. (PC does not have a local foods initiative, nor an environmental studies major [yet]. The few people who are passionate about these issues, when working together, demonstrate the ability to bring about change on a very grassroots level, but the process is slow.) Little by little, a project took shape. A nearby church donated a ½ acre grassy parking lot. Soil was tested for contaminants by sending a sample to the University of Massachusetts soil testing facility. For an urban area, the soil was miraculously low in lead and contaminant levels! We secured space, a small group of dedicated student gardeners, supporting faculty and staff… but the garden wasn’t on our campus. What would we grow, and who would benefit from this little green oasis? Greater community involvement was essential. The garden group started talking to neighbors and small businesses in the area, to discover how people would feel about a garden. The local health center and youth center expressed the most interest. The garden project developed because we celebrated and utilized community assets (students, community groups, and small businesses) and identified potential (abandoned lots) to eventually meet community needs. Three students involved in the garden group graduated, but stayed in the Smith Hill area to continue work on the garden. (As you know, a challenge of organizing in college settings is that people graduate or leave for semester breaks before projects can really get underway. In this case, the dedication of these individuals ensured the sustainability of the project.) The students partnered with a neighborhood action network called the Smith Hill Community Congress, and a committee developed to oversee funding and direction of the garden. Since then, the Providence After School Alliance has teamed with the garden group to create a summer youth program centered on gardening and sustainability. Check out the Community Congress’s progress herehttp://communitycongress.blogspot.com/. This process took more than a year, and we still have a ways to go. We hope that the garden will provide hands-on learning for both college students and residents of the neighborhood. We hope that students who see food growing locally and organically will stop to think about where their food comes from, especially in our dining halls. And we hope that it will bring people together who otherwise wouldn’t interact. Everybody’s got to eat, right? Two years ago, members of the Providence College chapter of Amnesty International campaigned to change our campus coffee distributor to a fair trade-certified brand. We were relieved to find out that the existing coffee distributor had a fair trade certified option, and a simple letter to our cafeteria manager secured a fair trade option in both cafeterias. We declared this a small victory, but knew we were not finished. Nevertheless, we were dismayed to find that our excitement about fair trade didn’t make its way around our campus of 4,000 undergrads. We observed that students didn’t choose the fair trade option coffee, complete with the green indicator leaf and title in italics. They chose the old brown coffee dispenser with the conventional coffee and boring label. Why? Ethical consumption was not a priority because, honestly, no one suggested it be one. Because Amnesty members were at capacity tackling too many other campaigns, we overlooked the importance of campus education around fair food. Very few groups on campus are talking about fair food. Before we can talk to decision makers or work with food providers, fair food has to become part of the campus culture. Hope lies in the most unexpected places, like parking lots. Last semester, the environmental studies class worked with a local farm to make our school a CSA pick-up site. Now, faculty, students, and staff receive local veggies every week. Here lies an opportunity: a group of people, invested in local food, waiting in a parking lot every Tuesday afternoon for their fennel and squash. What conversations could begin? The movement grows from here, from classrooms, from volunteer service at urban gardens, from stepping off campus, and from conversations. I am wondering: How have other student groups formed relationships with the community beyond campus walls? I feel like we are in an unusual predicament in that we have outside community support, but lack support from the campus body, administrators, and academic groups. We have a lot of outreach to do. Any ideas to help us out?
Peace! Kerry
say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.(w.berry)
|
My name is Kerry, and I am a public and community service major at Providence College, which means that I spend a lot of my time in the community of Providence, Rhode Island, engaging in reflective volunteer service. Last year, I acted as a community liaison between my college and City Farm, a ¾ acre pesticide-free urban garden in South Providence. City Farm grows loads of veggies and flowers for farmers markets, meal kitchens, and local restaurants.
Though this hands-on experience, I learned about the importance of local and organic food, and how investing in this movement will help to create the world I want to see. I realized that people in my neighborhood and on my campus, like me, were disconnected from their food sources, and that this was normal. As many of you can relate, I became a little food-obsessed, and I found others who shared my fascination. How radically simple an idea to grow food for yourself and your friends!
Around this time, friends of mine were researching the feasibility of creating a community garden on campus. A small group of about 6 interested students, the “garden group,” met periodically to talk about our shared vision. (PC does not have a local foods initiative, nor an environmental studies major [yet]. The few people who are passionate about these issues, when working together, demonstrate the ability to bring about change on a very grassroots level, but the process is slow.) Little by little, a project took shape. A nearby church donated a ½ acre grassy parking lot. Soil was tested for contaminants by sending a sample to the University of Massachusetts soil testing facility. For an urban area, the soil was miraculously low in lead and contaminant levels! We secured space, a small group of dedicated student gardeners, supporting faculty and staff… but the garden wasn’t on our campus. What would we grow, and who would benefit from this little green oasis? Greater community involvement was essential.
The garden group started talking to neighbors and small businesses in the area, to discover how people would feel about a garden. The local health center and youth center expressed the most interest. The garden project developed because we celebrated and utilized community assets (students, community groups, and small businesses) and identified potential (abandoned lots) to eventually meet community needs.
Three students involved in the garden group graduated, but stayed in the Smith Hill area to continue work on the garden. (As you know, a challenge of organizing in college settings is that people graduate or leave for semester breaks before projects can really get underway. In this case, the dedication of these individuals ensured the sustainability of the project.) The students partnered with a neighborhood action network called the Smith Hill Community Congress, and a committee developed to oversee funding and direction of the garden. Since then, the Providence After School Alliance has teamed with the garden group to create a summer youth program centered on gardening and sustainability. Check out the Community Congress’s progress herehttp://communitycongress.blogspot.com/.
This process took more than a year, and we still have a ways to go. We hope that the garden will provide hands-on learning for both college students and residents of the neighborhood. We hope that students who see food growing locally and organically will stop to think about where their food comes from, especially in our dining halls. And we hope that it will bring people together who otherwise wouldn’t interact. Everybody’s got to eat, right?
Two years ago, members of the Providence College chapter of Amnesty International campaigned to change our campus coffee distributor to a fair trade-certified brand. We were relieved to find out that the existing coffee distributor had a fair trade certified option, and a simple letter to our cafeteria manager secured a fair trade option in both cafeterias. We declared this a small victory, but knew we were not finished. Nevertheless, we were dismayed to find that our excitement about fair trade didn’t make its way around our campus of 4,000 undergrads. We observed that students didn’t choose the fair trade option coffee, complete with the green indicator leaf and title in italics. They chose the old brown coffee dispenser with the conventional coffee and boring label. Why? Ethical consumption was not a priority because, honestly, no one suggested it be one. Because Amnesty members were at capacity tackling too many other campaigns, we overlooked the importance of campus education around fair food.
Very few groups on campus are talking about fair food. Before we can talk to decision makers or work with food providers, fair food has to become part of the campus culture.
Hope lies in the most unexpected places, like parking lots. Last semester, the environmental studies class worked with a local farm to make our school a CSA pick-up site. Now, faculty, students, and staff receive local veggies every week. Here lies an opportunity: a group of people, invested in local food, waiting in a parking lot every Tuesday afternoon for their fennel and squash. What conversations could begin?
The movement grows from here, from classrooms, from volunteer service at urban gardens, from stepping off campus, and from conversations.
I am wondering: How have other student groups formed relationships with the community beyond campus walls?
I feel like we are in an unusual predicament in that we have outside community support, but lack support from the campus body, administrators, and academic groups. We have a lot of outreach to do. Any ideas to help us out?
Peace!
Kerry
say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.(w.berry)
My name is Kerry, and I am a public and community service major at Providence College, which means that I spend a lot of my time in the community of Providence, Rhode Island, engaging in reflective volunteer service. Last year, I acted as a community liaison between my college and City Farm, a ¾ acre pesticide-free urban garden in South Providence. City Farm grows loads of veggies and flowers for farmers markets, meal kitchens, and local restaurants.
Though this hands-on experience, I learned about the importance of local and organic food, and how investing in this movement will help to create the world I want to see. I realized that people in my neighborhood and on my campus, like me, were disconnected from their food sources, and that this was normal. As many of you can relate, I became a little food-obsessed, and I found others who shared my fascination. How radically simple an idea to grow food for yourself and your friends!
Around this time, friends of mine were researching the feasibility of creating a community garden on campus. A small group of about 6 interested students, the “garden group,” met periodically to talk about our shared vision. (PC does not have a local foods initiative, nor an environmental studies major [yet]. The few people who are passionate about these issues, when working together, demonstrate the ability to bring about change on a very grassroots level, but the process is slow.) Little by little, a project took shape. A nearby church donated a ½ acre grassy parking lot. Soil was tested for contaminants by sending a sample to the University of Massachusetts soil testing facility. For an urban area, the soil was miraculously low in lead and contaminant levels! We secured space, a small group of dedicated student gardeners, supporting faculty and staff… but the garden wasn’t on our campus. What would we grow, and who would benefit from this little green oasis? Greater community involvement was essential.
The garden group started talking to neighbors and small businesses in the area, to discover how people would feel about a garden. The local health center and youth center expressed the most interest. The garden project developed because we celebrated and utilized community assets (students, community groups, and small businesses) and identified potential (abandoned lots) to eventually meet community needs.
Three students involved in the garden group graduated, but stayed in the Smith Hill area to continue work on the garden. (As you know, a challenge of organizing in college settings is that people graduate or leave for semester breaks before projects can really get underway. In this case, the dedication of these individuals ensured the sustainability of the project.) The students partnered with a neighborhood action network called the Smith Hill Community Congress, and a committee developed to oversee funding and direction of the garden. Since then, the Providence After School Alliance has teamed with the garden group to create a summer youth program centered on gardening and sustainability. Check out the Community Congress’s progress herehttp://communitycongress.blogspot.com/.
This process took more than a year, and we still have a ways to go. We hope that the garden will provide hands-on learning for both college students and residents of the neighborhood. We hope that students who see food growing locally and organically will stop to think about where their food comes from, especially in our dining halls. And we hope that it will bring people together who otherwise wouldn’t interact. Everybody’s got to eat, right?
Two years ago, members of the Providence College chapter of Amnesty International campaigned to change our campus coffee distributor to a fair trade-certified brand. We were relieved to find out that the existing coffee distributor had a fair trade certified option, and a simple letter to our cafeteria manager secured a fair trade option in both cafeterias. We declared this a small victory, but knew we were not finished. Nevertheless, we were dismayed to find that our excitement about fair trade didn’t make its way around our campus of 4,000 undergrads. We observed that students didn’t choose the fair trade option coffee, complete with the green indicator leaf and title in italics. They chose the old brown coffee dispenser with the conventional coffee and boring label. Why? Ethical consumption was not a priority because, honestly, no one suggested it be one. Because Amnesty members were at capacity tackling too many other campaigns, we overlooked the importance of campus education around fair food.
Very few groups on campus are talking about fair food. Before we can talk to decision makers or work with food providers, fair food has to become part of the campus culture.
Hope lies in the most unexpected places, like parking lots. Last semester, the environmental studies class worked with a local farm to make our school a CSA pick-up site. Now, faculty, students, and staff receive local veggies every week. Here lies an opportunity: a group of people, invested in local food, waiting in a parking lot every Tuesday afternoon for their fennel and squash. What conversations could begin?
The movement grows from here, from classrooms, from volunteer service at urban gardens, from stepping off campus, and from conversations.
I am wondering: How have other student groups formed relationships with the community beyond campus walls?
I feel like we are in an unusual predicament in that we have outside community support, but lack support from the campus body, administrators, and academic groups. We have a lot of outreach to do. Any ideas to help us out?
Peace!
Kerry
say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.(w.berry)