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Virginia Tech embraces the community
New River Journal
By Michael Abraham
Jim Dubinsky is a Virginia Tech professor and director of the Center for Student Engagement & Community Partnerships.
He was kind enough to set up an appointment for me to meet two of his student colleagues to discuss the selfless work they’re doing to benefit the people of Montgomery County.
Carmen Byker is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, specifically in sustainable food systems. Additionally, she works as a graduate research assistant at the center.
Stephanie Riviere is a senior, also studying human nutrition, foods and exercise. She plans to pursue becoming a registered dietitian. She aspires to earn her master’s degree in public health and do community-based program planning for underserved children.
Stephanie told me that she was manager of the Virginia Tech Student Garden, doing organic and sustainable vegetable gardening. She is also a member of the Sustainable Food Corps, a student organization at Virginia Tech for which Jim is faculty advisor and Carmen is the graduate contact.
Jim said the center’s work originated with Virginia Tech’s 2006 strategic plan, was commissioned by a task force in February 2007 and took on additional visibility with the April 16, 2007, shootings.
“One of our center’s goals is to provide opportunities where our students can be ‘present’ in the Blacksburg community. We want Virginia Tech’s students and faculty to be recognized as good neighbors.
“Food is obviously an essential issue for all of us. There is a movement sweeping not just Montgomery County but across the nation to re-localize our food production and to provide a ‘farm-to-fork’ link. My student colleagues in the Sustainable Food Corps are paving the way.”
Stephanie said, “When someone buys food these days at a grocery store, he or she typically has no idea where it came from. Nutritious and healthy foods are not accessible to everyone.”
Carmen agreed. “It is a problem that non-nutritious food is cheaper than nutritious food.”
I opined that the corporate food industry is less motivated by health and nutrition than profits.
Through its influence, the government has set up programs that make it cheaper and easier for people to consume unhealthy food than healthy food.
Furthermore, because of the significant demand that agriculture has for fossil fuels, primarily natural gas in the production of fertilizers and oil in the production, processing and distribution of food, we have a system that is unsustainable. We will have to change our current system whether we like it or not.
“Nutrition is simple,” Stephanie said. “Eating a wholesome, balanced and locally produced diet will provide better health. Everybody in the Virginia Tech community is welcome to come and volunteer at the SFC’s student garden, located behind Smithfield Plantation house. The people who participate have ownership in what they are eating.
“They become attuned to the seasons and to the cycles of planting, nurturing, harvesting and consumption of food. Our mission is to engage the community in cultivating a resilient and sustainable locally owned food system.”
Carmen said about 100 people volunteer now, and interest is growing.
Stephanie said, “We are beginning to provide community dinners. This has become a wonderful way to link people on a personal level from within the Tech community to the greater population.”
Jim said, “When the SFC serves community dinners, they exemplify our center’s mission of responding to local needs.”
Three summers ago, Carmen said she helped analyze a study called the “100 Mile Diet,” which attempted to determine whether a family could subsist on food solely grown within 100 miles of Blacksburg.
“The people in our study shopped at farmers markets and at local meatpacking plants. They formed wonderful relationships with their food providers. I am doing a study now with Head Start, which is a government-funded preschool program for lower income children. Students in Community Nutrition at Virginia Tech and I deliver weekly bags of locally-grown fruits and vegetables to area Head Start offices.
“A horrible thing happened on this campus on April 16, 2007. Since then, programs such as VT Engage (part of CSECP) and student organizations such as the Sustainable Food Corps have helped students appreciate the value of volunteerism. And as a result, those of us within the university see the positive effects of volunteer service and how it can help our community heal and become whole again.”
