Guest Post by Rhea Jayaswal, Food Shuttle Intern
As the school year was drawing to a close, the growing season was still in full swing at the Holt Elementary school garden. As one of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s innovative agriculture education sites, the blooming garden hosts a range of classes for the kids, covering everything from insects and biodiversity to local crops and healthy eating. With 86% of Holt students eligible for free or reduced lunch, the garden program also plays a key role in combating child hunger, improving public health, and empowering community members to grow their own produce.
As an intern with the Food Shuttle learning about nutrition policies and programs, I’ve travelled across central NC to meet our different partners, from church groups coordinating emergency food distribution to volunteers at the Food Shuttle Farm. However, while working with garden managers at Holt, a problem quickly became apparent: there was no space to store any tools.
Though this may seem small, educators cannot hold classes and community members can’t grow their own food if they can’t easily obtain and share shovels, spades, hoses, and bags for harvesting when the time comes. Teachers mentioned the need for a space to keep education materials for others who are less familiar with the garden to hold classes. On top of that, many elderly community members who manage plots need a space to sit down from time to time.
Thanks to a Service Partnership Mini-Grant from the Carolina Center for Public Service at UNC Chapel Hill, FoodCorps member Brett Rapkin-Citrenbaum and I were able to purchase the materials to build a storage bench for the school. At a recent volunteer workday, a small group of us spent the morning sawing wood and drilling the bench together (with only one snack break!). The hope is that the storage bench will make it easier for teachers, volunteers, and community members to hold large outdoor classes and cultivate nutritious food. With the school year nearing its end and summer jitters already abuzz, the students were excited to paint the bench together before they drifted apart for vacation.
The same way that not having a storage space hindered the accessibility of the school garden and its positive impact on student health, there are countless tiny, often overlooked factors that affect our wellbeing. For example, not having sidewalks in one’s neighborhood can make it difficult to engage in physical activity. Likewise, not having public transportation and nearby grocery stores can make it nearly impossible to get essential fresh fruits and vegetables.
All of these little things make a big difference in our overall health. Throughout my journey to learn about nonprofit nutrition assistance, I’ve confronted these barriers to healthy food right at their roots, alongside people deeply committed to empowering local food systems and ensuring food justice.
Thank you especially to Laura Rice and Rachel Quigley, who made the internship not only an informative look inside the operations of frontline nutrition programs, but also incredibly fun. The experience took me across cities and counties, but through it all, the Food Shuttle became home.