As part of summer term, Sinclair Community College offered a purchasing class based on sustainability that went beyond traditional classroom learning.
Those who took the class grew their own garden, then offered their products to the Culinary Arts department to teach the class about sustainability and cost differences when growing your own food products, versus buying it when running your own business.
“The purpose of this class is to educate us on the cost of things and feasibility of gardening,” Sinclair student Carl King said. “So if we owned our own business, it would allow us to keep our bottom line down by not going to an intermediate area to facilitate our needs, as far as plant food stuff.”
Some students entered the class with gardening experience, while others learned as they went.
“I grew up gardening. We grew with our grandmother at age 6, so we had worked the garden,” Student Ella Ragans said. “We had to do a lot of work. I had to bring in soil and [the ground] had a lot of stones and stuff like that. So we had to pull that out and make the ground fertile so the seeds, when they grew, wouldn’t get caught around any stones. It was fun.”
Just like any other gardener, students faced challenges in keeping their gardens alive.
“I have had something like a garden, we do have animals; we have a rabbit and his family that is eating the vegetables,” Student Kim Hayes said. “So I know my garden is doing well, because I’m feeding him.”
Although the students faced the challenge of keeping the animal out of their individual gardens, some students felt that the summer made for good gardening weather.
Student Samara Courtney took the class for honors. By doing so, she was to measure and keep track of how some plants grew, then compare costs of growing gardens, verses purchasing food elsewhere.
“This is going to be a sustainability, where we keep growing this over and over, instead of having to purchase from somebody,” Courtney said.
Although gardens cannot be grown during the winter months, the class will continue to be offered throughout the year, but with a slightly altered focus.
Instead of actually growing plants, students will save seeds for the students taking the class in the later terms.
“After this class is done, whoever has projects (gardens) still down there, will turn it over to next semester,” Courtney said.
Overall, students felt like they took something from the class that they will use in the future.
“My personal goal to take from this class is to show me the difference between a locally grown garden and how to choose the right type of product for a restaurant, if I were to own one, versus going outside the market and expecting to get what I really want, but not,” student Carianne Chase said.