By Piper Rutherford | Staff writer
With its first Garden to Table Dinner Celebration during Earth Week, Baylor’s community garden seeks to celebrate the work of its new environmental humanities minor, a collaboration with the Sustainable Community and Regenerative Agriculture Collective and the efforts of different groups of students to make the garden and The Earth a more beautiful place.
Granbury senior and community garden co-manager Morgan Garner said her team is excited to welcome all faculty, staff and students from 6 to 7:30 pm on April 25. at the garden, which is located at the corner of James Avenue and Ninth Street.
“Our goal with this event is to promote the success the garden had last year, thanks to the more than 600 students, faculty and staff who contributed over the past few months,” Garner said. “For the participants, we plan to have great food from local partners, such as the World Hunger Relief Institute, Waco’s Urban Mission. REAPlocally grown tea, locally grown Barnard Beef meat and cheese, poultry from Chapultepec Farms and dessert from Waco’s Baked Bliss.
In addition to celebrating record student participation, Dr. Joshua King, director of Baylor’s new environmental humanities minor, said the event will begin with an official announcement that the student government will fund new projects for the garden
“They agreed to build a new greenhouse for storage and growing seedlings, as well as a new canopy for the pergola and benches throughout the space,” King said. “They will also give the garden a CO2 mural, which includes a special paint that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere, and we are opening the competition for student artists who are interested in painting one of the four sections of the mural for Submit your design ideas.”
Garner shared some of the garden’s new initiatives that will be recognized on the night.
“There was more participation from non-affiliated students in the garden this year because of the classes in the garden that we were able to provide with the help of World Hunger Relief. [Institute’s] workshops and events,” Garner said. “These include a multitude of departments on campus, from English, history and modern languages to environmental science and social work.”
Beyond the campus, King said the big picture of the garden is that it seeks to serve low-income, food.insecure communities, like the neighborhoods here in Waco.
“The bottom line is that we have a lot of waste in our community going to landfill, creating methane emissions, contributing to the climate and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable families,” King said. “That’s why our programs, like Partners for Places, are so crucial to what we do, as they help us address environmental challenges for frontline communities like ours.”
On a more personal note, Garner said her time with the garden taught her how to live responsibly and help the Earth.
“Personally, the garden has been a therapeutic place for me, where I have met people on the same path as me who want to grow into a better human being and also make the Earth a better place to live,” Garner said. “That’s what this event is all about: getting other students involved in what we’re doing in the garden so that they too can learn how to start a garden or live more sustainably in all areas of their lives.”
