Cultivating a crop of national trends, a Culinary Teaching Garden at The University of Akron is being unveiled this Thursday, June 16, with a public reception from 4 to 5 p.m.
The campus and community are invited. Refreshments, music by an ensemble of the UA Steel Drum Band, and a brief program at 4:30 are planned.
The garden is in the courtyard of Schrank Hall South, 240 Carroll St. It is a working garden where students in UA's nutrition and dietetics programs will help to care for the plants, harvest the produce and use it in meal preparation.
“What we’ve initiated here very much ties in with the national trends we’re seeing: the green movement, the sustainability movement, and the health and wellness movement,” says Sue Rasor-Greenhalgh, interim director of the UA School of Family and Consumer Sciences and an early proponent of the garden.
“Some of our students really have no idea where their food comes from, or how to identify the plants that provide it. Now they’ll be seeing and preparing all kinds of food," says Rasor-Greenhalgh.
Rasor-Greenhalgh and her colleagues in UA’s nutrition and dietetics programs also hope to involve students from across campus in the garden, as well as people in the community.
Initial funding for the Culinary Teaching Garden was provided through a $10,000 gift from The University of Akron Women’s Committee. Project partners include members of UA’s grounds crew, led by Rick Riccardi, coordinator of site design and landscaping, and Denise Ellsworth, coordinator of the Master Gardener Program at The Ohio State University Summit County Extension Office.
For more information, contact Cyndee Snider at 330-972-5196 or cyndee@uakron.edu.
