Farewell and Thank You to the Morven Summer Institute

Yesterday marked the last day of the Morven Summer Institute for this year.  All of the students were so enthusiastic, and I loved getting to know them individually when they helped out at the garden.  As part of the class, they also conducted research projects with community partners such as the Local Food Hub, Venable Elementary School, and our own farm at Morven.   I attended the final presentations of these projects of the STS 2500 Food Studies class, and I could not have been more impressed.  The students not only were very professional and knowledgeable about their topics, but each group created pamplets and handouts to give to their community partners with suggestions and instructions for possible solutions to issues.One group researched, designed, and built a vegetable washing station for us to use on site at the farm (pictured above).  Another group created a handout on CSAs with case studies of other universities with CSA programs, distribution methods, options for funding, and more.  Another group researched and looked into converting the Local Food Hub's distribution truck to run on waste vegetable oil from local restaurants.  Yet another group worked with Venable Elementary School to design and plan building a schoolyard vegetable garden to be cared for by the elementary school students.  As I said before, I was blown away by the students' hard work.  We all would like to say a huge Thank you to them for their help and enthusiasm!  High-five guys!