Service Learning - Campus Community Farm Work Parties

Linh Nguyen

McFarland

Bio 241

June 11^th, 2017

Title of the Project: Campus Community Farm Work Parties

Hours volunteered: 2 hours on May 8^th 3-5 pm and 2 hours on May 25^th 2:30-4:30 pm

Event organizer: Marni Swart. marni.swart@edmail.edcc.edu

Event goal:

This event opens every Mondays 12-2 pm, Tuesday 11-3 pm, and Thursday 2:30-4:30 pm during Spring quarter. It lets students learn about food issues, sustainability, nutrition, gardening skills such as planting, weeding, construction, and a variety of food issues.

My duties:

During the event, I helped in weeding, watering the plants, harvesting kale, weighing harvested vegetables and recording the number. I also had a chance to taste and learned how to cook the vegetables in the farm on May 25^th.

   Taken by Anna. May 8^th, 2017                                                  May 25^th, 2017

Refection:

This campus farm work parties gave me more ideas about how science affected society. It helped me to learn more about the food I eat every day and the nutrients I can have if I use organic food. Also, I felt like gardening work is similar to work out because it made me have to use almost every muscle. Example, when I was weeding, I used the back, shoulder and arm muscles such as trapezius, latissimus dorsi, triceps brachii, biceps brachii, etc, the bottom and thigh muscles such as gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius, etc - bend down into a squatting position and stand up. And working under the sun is good for my health too because sunlight’s health benefit to humans is to stimulate the production of vitamin D – which stimulates the absorption of bone-strengthening calcium and phosphorus in the body. But I also figured out, we can easy get sunburn – as known as first-degree burn - which damage the epidermis if we work for long hours under the sun or maybe sunstroke which causes of exertional heatstroke. We have to wear gloves and closed toe shoes during working to prevent scratches and wounds which can cause inflammation by bacterial when we in the farm. In the end of the day, the vegetables we harvested and weighted would bring to the Food Bank. And I also could take home harvested food such as kale, lettuce, cilantro, thyme, … After joined the first Campus Community Farm Work Party on May 8^th I planned to go to this event again and again because I can have more knowledge about the food I eat daily, learn how to grow and take care of it, and meet new friends, too. I also had a chance to taste and learned how to cook the vegetables in the farm on May 25^th.

Questions:

1. Is that true that every organic food always better than other kinds of food?

2. How different between this community farm and the other which located next to the stadium?

3. Do working under the sun can make some people fainted?

4. When we can harvest the strawberries?