Many people simply eat their food and don't know or understand where it comes from. Jennifer Mandelbaum '14 has planned an initiative she hopes will cultivate an appreciation among the campus community for locally grown and home grown products.
The initiative, co-sponsored by Health, Science, Society and Policy Department and the Brandeis Pluralism Alliance, with additional help from 'DeisBikes and Sodexo, is known as Brandeis Garden Week. A series of events were hosted in accordance with this initiative, and have been open to the entire Brandeis community. These events began on Nov. 11 and will continue through Nov. 20 for students to learn about garden education and urban agriculture in the Waltham community.
To kick off the program, Mandelbaum set up three garden displays around campus: one in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, one in the Carl J. Shapiro Science Center Lobby and one in Goldfarb Library near the entrance closest to the Usdan Student Center.
The displays are, according to Mandelbaum, "medium-sized containers, each with different plants in them and label[ed] so people can see what kinds of plants they are." Next to the garden displays are posters that were made to "touch upon what garden education is and how it is used in different ways," according to Mandelbaum.
The garden display posters were each slightly different and each related to the location of the garden displays. For example, the poster next to the display in the Shapiro Science Center explains a scientific and quantitative perspective, with information on how local schools are using gardening to teach measurements and test hypotheses of science experiments in which the students are participating. The posters, Mandelbaum said, "are all different, but they convey similar messages: garden education is hands-on learning that can be applied to a number of academic subjects."
Mandelbaum began thinking about this initiative last year when she became a Schiff Undergraduate Fellow. The fellowship that works with a "faculty sponsor to perform an innovative research or pedagogical project," according to its website. As a fellow she studied urban agriculture and garden education in Waltham through working with schools, after-school programs and local community farms.
"I feel that we sometimes live in a 'Brandeis bubble' and don't realize a lot of what is going on off campus," Mandelbaum said. After doing her research and learning all of this information, Mandelbaum "wanted to do something to share that with people on campus," she said. By setting up the garden displays, she said that she hopes to "bring a little bit of urban gardening to the Brandeis community."
Garden Week strives to promote the importance of people realizing "where their food is actually coming from and what is exactly in their food." She hopes to accomplish this through the events she planned that incorporate the importance of fresh and local produce.
Because this is the first year of the initiative, Mandelbaum needed to get approval from the University administration to begin her project. According to Mandelbaum, getting the approval necessary to begin Garden Week was not difficult. At first, she said it was challenging to figure out whom to contact, but once she was directed to the right people, "it was very easy," she said. "Everyone was really open to the idea."
Garden Week included events such as a trip sponsored by 'DeisBikes, the opportunity to volunteer at Waltham Fields Community Farms and an afternoon of healthy cooking with Sodexo.
The 'DeisBikes trip, which took place last Saturday, was a bicycle ride through Waltham gardens that ended in the Waltham Fields Community Farm. While at the farm the bikers got to press their own apple cider and observe all of the produce on the farm. Jesse Koklas '14, participated in the 'DeisBikes trip and wished "more people would get excited about coming to cool events like garden week," she wrote in an email to the Justice.
Tanvi Bahuguna '14 another participant of the garden bike trip, said that although she "didn't really learn anything new ... seeing the farm produce and pressing our own apple cider with the "bike press" was amazing and a lot of fun."
Jennifer Largaespada '16 participated in the Waltham Fields Community Farm volunteer event on Wednesday. Although she wished she could have gone to the farm earlier in the year when they were still harvesting, Largaespada said, "I did enjoy volunteering at the Waltham Fields Community Farm because I got to learn more about the resources that it makes available to the Waltham community."
Although the cooking event has not yet happened, Mandelbaum said she is excited to be working with Sodexo in this event. At the event, which will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 20, the participants will be making either pumpkin or squash risotto, to be made with local foods that were sustainably grown, following the initiatives of the week.
In addition, after the cooking session, there will be a discussion about the importance of locally grown foods.
Mandelbaum said that she hopes Garden Week will help students to "put a little more thought to where their food comes from, and where it's grown."
She said that even though she is graduating, "I'd definitely look into someone else who would be willing to do something like this again."