Skidmore students grow their own....
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Faith Nichola, Elizabeth Cohen, Gabby Stern, Margot Reisner |
Early
in the school and late in the afternoon last month, a tightrope was stretched
between two trees in the quad. One guy walked the entire thing after a couple
of tries. Not far off at the Dining Hall, a similar balancing act is taking
place.
Skidmore
students are taking on something called the Real Food Challenge (RFC) requiring
food served at schools be humane, fair trade, ecological, and local. The goal
is that this is true for 20% of school food by 2020.
The
school isn’t committing to the challenge, not on paper anyway, the students are. Because of their
work, last October, over 11% of school food came from a garden next to the
Admissions Building.
Skidmore has four things going for it: a decent growing zone,
a dining services director who calls the shots, an aggressive grass roots Food
Action Group and Gabby Stern, among others.
Last
summer Stern (’13) toiled in the soil at the school garden, interned at American
Farmland Trust and ran the Farmers Market in downtown Saratoga – a local food
trifecta.
“I
came into Skidmore with zero experience,” said Stern, an environmental studies
major. “Then I started working the garden. There I was, 18 years old and it was
the first time I harvested a carrot, or a sweet potato. There is a problem with
that. How have I gone my entire life not knowing this?”
Under
the umbrella of the Environmental Action Club, the Food Working Group began
four years ago when students broke ground. Stern took over as manager of the
garden in 2010 and contracted with the dining hall to sell the vegetables. That
was the start of the Local Food Initiative, an effort dedicated to getting more
local food into the school.
“I
learned from other members of the group. It was hands on,” says Stern, “A few
professors from school gave their two cents and we just learned on our own. We
get a lot of support from Environmental Studies and it is incredible how much
they covet this garden. It has been a great part of my education, this garden.
Stern
gets no academic credits for this work but this semester Faith Nichola (’14) is
doing an internship to perform data analysis for the Real Food Challenge. She will also be creating reports from
that data for Skidmore administration to provide them with a better
understanding of the process.
Elizabeth
Cohen, (’14) got involved in the garden when Sarah Arndt (’13?) introduced her
to RNC. Originally from Putney Vermont Cohen grew up with a garden in the back
yard so the origins of a carrot were familiar to her. Coming to Skidmore put
organic food in a different light.
“Working
in the garden made me think about where things are coming from. Affordability
and access aren’t the same for everybody,” she said adding that even if
everybody decided to eat local and organic, it would be great, but it is
impossible.
Riley
Neugebauer, Skidmore’s Sustainability Coordinator, believes that food is a
social justice issue. “Sustainability includes equity (justice), ecology, and
economy,” she says.
‘If
people don't have access to one of their most basic needs – food – or if the
only food they have access to is unhealthy, grown with pesticides that
accumulate in our bodies over time, harm the environment that we are all a part
of, and doesn't tell a story about where it came from or who grew it or why
that matters…then we have a justice issue.”
‘Margot
Reisner, (’14) from San Francisco, is now managing the garden and takes the
long view. This semester she is managing the garden and next semester she will
travel to Australia to study permaculture.
Reisner,
who is in the social and cultural track of environmental studies defined
permaculture as follows: “Permaculture is the mentality is that everything we
do as humans has to do with ecology. If it doesn’t have to do with ecology,
then it doesn’t make sense at all. If there is a discrepancy between the way
human systems work and the way ecology works, then you are going to have a
problem. Permaculture mimics the way ecological systems work.”
After
graduation, Reisner will return to California to start her own farm.
“I
just want to have a place to have people live and be healthy,” she said.
By Mary A. Nelen (’79)