Growing Food Security: Food Pantry Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms
Presentation Format
Poster
Intended Audience
All Audiences
Presentation Description
Approximately 15 percent (17.6 million households) of all U.S. households experienced food insecurity during 2012, and approximately 17% (16,280) of all of Floyd County, Georgia's 95,978 residents are food insecure (Map the Meal Gap 2013). While food pantries were originally designed to assist food insecure citizens with acute hunger, ensuring they have sufficient nutrition in times of need, such food assistance has become a key component of food insecure “households’ long term strategies to supplement monthly shortfalls in food” (Echevarria et al. 2011: 1). Our community engagement project addresses this social problem by developing gardens at the food pantry that serve as educational centers to teach food insecure patrons how to grow food year round and incorporate it into healthy meals that can be easily produced. On-site meals with locally grown ingredients showcase the facility of growing and cooking food directly from one's own garden and directly ameliorate chronic food insecurity.
As part of a research and service collaboration with our local Food Pantry, my Anthropology of Food course in Fall 2015 worked on the maintenance and development of on-site gardens and an orchard, harvesting and preparing produce from the gardens, and designing workshops and recipes that showcase and teach the use of locally (on-site) produced vegetables and fruits. Building upon a previous research collaboration with Action Ministries Rome (GA) that documented patrons' interest and need for more education and experience with the preparation of locally grown foods, my students and I scheduled workshops where local residents could learn seasonal food production and preparation strategies. By hosting workshops in which I engage both the class and members of the food pantry simultaneously in a hands-on manner in the food pantry gardens, we provide knowledge that allows them to grow and harvest their own food. We hosted meals in the gardens where we set up tables and chairs and prepared and shared dishes made from the produce grown on site with food insecure members of the local community. Such on-site food production and preparation enables the food insecure (and our students) to feel confident in their ability to grow healthy food and turn it into meals for their families and reduce their food expenditures. We have developed forms with descriptions of the crops grown on site and corresponding recipes for locally grown vegetables to distribute at the food pantry and on our website to ensure that patrons know how and when to harvest and use the produce they receive from the pantry. This information and first-hand experiential knowledge is invaluable to the pantry efforts to encourage patrons to eat healthier food and reduce their dependence through gardening.
Location
Embassy Suites Hotel
Start Date
4-13-2016 5:00 PM
End Date
4-13-2016 7:00 PM
Recommended Citation
Campbell, Brian; McLendon, Emily; and Howard, Tessa, "Growing Food Security: Food Pantry Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms" (2016). Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016. 27.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gss/2016/2016/27
Growing Food Security: Food Pantry Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms
Embassy Suites Hotel
Approximately 15 percent (17.6 million households) of all U.S. households experienced food insecurity during 2012, and approximately 17% (16,280) of all of Floyd County, Georgia's 95,978 residents are food insecure (Map the Meal Gap 2013). While food pantries were originally designed to assist food insecure citizens with acute hunger, ensuring they have sufficient nutrition in times of need, such food assistance has become a key component of food insecure “households’ long term strategies to supplement monthly shortfalls in food” (Echevarria et al. 2011: 1). Our community engagement project addresses this social problem by developing gardens at the food pantry that serve as educational centers to teach food insecure patrons how to grow food year round and incorporate it into healthy meals that can be easily produced. On-site meals with locally grown ingredients showcase the facility of growing and cooking food directly from one's own garden and directly ameliorate chronic food insecurity.
As part of a research and service collaboration with our local Food Pantry, my Anthropology of Food course in Fall 2015 worked on the maintenance and development of on-site gardens and an orchard, harvesting and preparing produce from the gardens, and designing workshops and recipes that showcase and teach the use of locally (on-site) produced vegetables and fruits. Building upon a previous research collaboration with Action Ministries Rome (GA) that documented patrons' interest and need for more education and experience with the preparation of locally grown foods, my students and I scheduled workshops where local residents could learn seasonal food production and preparation strategies. By hosting workshops in which I engage both the class and members of the food pantry simultaneously in a hands-on manner in the food pantry gardens, we provide knowledge that allows them to grow and harvest their own food. We hosted meals in the gardens where we set up tables and chairs and prepared and shared dishes made from the produce grown on site with food insecure members of the local community. Such on-site food production and preparation enables the food insecure (and our students) to feel confident in their ability to grow healthy food and turn it into meals for their families and reduce their food expenditures. We have developed forms with descriptions of the crops grown on site and corresponding recipes for locally grown vegetables to distribute at the food pantry and on our website to ensure that patrons know how and when to harvest and use the produce they receive from the pantry. This information and first-hand experiential knowledge is invaluable to the pantry efforts to encourage patrons to eat healthier food and reduce their dependence through gardening.
Program Abstract
Food pantries struggle to alleviate increasing hunger, but contrary to their original purpose, they have become part of the long-term planning of the food insecure, rather than a temporary solution. Our community engagement project addresses food insecurity by developing gardens at a community food pantry that serve as educational centers to teach food insecure patrons how to grow food year round and incorporate it into healthy meals that can be easily produced.