Incorporation of a Food Insecurity Garden into an Experiential Learning Community Nutrition Course

Abstract

To provide undergraduate nutrition students enrolled in a community nutrition course, a structured service learning experience that combined community service with student learning objectives and reflections. Students experienced the development of an on-campus garden, maintenance, harvest and distribution of the produce. Undergraduate dietetics students are expected to develop discipline-specific skills but often do not have the opportunity to put course knowledge into practice. Community gardens are increasing in popularity and it is essential that future community dietitians understand what is involved in implementing a garden, maintaining it and then harvesting as well as preparing the produce if they are going to be encouraging their clients to garden. The senior-level Community Nutrition course met for 15 weeks and included 100 minutes each of lecture and lab weekly. The course fulfilled the university’s Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR) by requiring each student to complete a minimum of 20 hours of service learning activities which included working in the garden and/or processing the produce for utilization in the nutrition program’s food security backpack program. The garden produced 157.5 pounds of food (106 pounds of tomatoes, 48 pounds of potatoes and 3.5 pounds of kale and lettuce). Students also canned 16 jars of applesauce from local apples and 92 cans of tomato sauce from the tomatoes. Qualitative data was collected from the students via guided reflections. The implementation of an on-campus food insecurity garden was viewed as a valuable learning experience by students and also contributed to reducing food insecurity in the community.