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Students collaborate to celebrate Earth Day
| UNM organizations work hard year-round to bring sustainability and local food to campus |
by KITTY HURST
Earth Day highlights the accomplishments of many UNM organizations working toward sustainability. But the celebrations often hide the hard work put in year-round to change the way food and sustainability are thought about around campus.
Student groups, university programs and community coalitions are trying to bring more local food services to UNM while creating sustainable communities and combating local hunger.
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photo by Kitty Hurst |
| Kristy Calderon, Ian Moore and Laura Arguelles plant pepper seeds at El Centro de la Raza on Friday. |
Festivities include spring planting, a UNM growers’ market, a carbon-neutral film festival, an alternative transportation fair and, of course, Spring Storm, UNM largest community service event.
Rose Chavez, a nutrition major who coordinated the UNM grower’s market, describes the food and health environment at UNM as “very progressive.”
“With the mandates put out by the governor in addition to some of the statements made by President David Schmidly, I think we are moving in a forward direction,” Chavez said. “I think we can say that especially because the Sustainabilities Studies program has been funded.”
Schmidly addressed some of UNM’s environmental concerns during his live Web cast earlier this month. He laid out a “Strategic Framework” including student success, systemic excellence, healthy communities, and economic and community development, which “focuses on economic revitalization, community capacity building and leadership in sustainability,” according to the Web cast.
Schmidly also lists sustainability as one of UNM’s core values, along with freedom and diversity.
For the last six years, Spring Storm has been the traditional kick-off of Earth Day celebrations around campus. On Saturday, April 19 students were invited to lend a hand in the school’s largest community service event of the year.
Events ranged from small considerations like picking up trash, to more involved ventures like installing rain collection cisterns and watering systems at the Barelas Community Center’s urban garden -which was a service project of the Anthropology 230 Community Garden class.
Urban Agriculture Community Enrichment Program
The Urban Agriculture Community Enrichment Program (U-ACE Program), comprised of organizations like UNM Sustain, Sustaianabilities Studies, and GROW, is also contributing to the Earth Day festivities.
The group begun celebrating last Friday when it planted a salsa garden in the east courtyard of the student cultural center, El Centro de la Raza, located in Mesa Vista Hall.
“Every day is Earth Day if you really care about your future,” said Laura Arguelles, a GROW member and UNM senior, who plans to continue her education in green community planning.
The highlight of the event was filling a planter made and donated by local business owner Chuck O'Herron-Alex. He runs the garden shop Veggiegrower Gardens of New Mexico, located on Silver Avenue.
The wooden planters O’Herron-Alex builds host a micro-intensive garden, supplying all the right conditions to produce healthy greens, even in the busy city or a university campus.
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photo by Kitty Hurst |
| Veggiegrowers owner Cuck O'Herron-Alex plants cilantro in the planter he designed, built and donated to UNM. |
“This [planter] proves gardens can flourish anywhere,” Arguelles said. “Chuck started making the planters for people in Mexico living on trash heaps –now that’s compassion!”
Another one of O’Herron-Alex’s planters will be on display at the GROW booth at the UNM Growers’ Market April 24.
The group plans to re-plant the garden later using ollas to conserve water, Arguelles said.
Ollas are clay pots filled with water and buried beside plants. The porous clay lets water escape gradually, providing a desert-friendly way to water plants.
“We’re trying to make this garden as sustainable as possible,” said A.J. Tongate, president of the student organization GROW, which stands for Gardens Raise Our World. “We’re using organic soil and compost, local seeds, even borrowed shovels!”
Carbon-Neurtal Film Festival
The U-ACE Program is also sponsoring a carbon-neutral film festival the week of April 22. Tuesday through Friday a film will be shown in the courtyard of Castetter Hall, the Biology Building, at 6:30 p.m.
The films will focus on issues surrounding sustainability and global warming. Two films featured include “Who Killed the Electric Car?” and “The Future of Food.”
As incentive to engage in carbon-neutral activities, fluorescent light bulbs will be given to attendees that travelled to the show carbon-neutrally. Suggestions include walking, riding a bike or taking the bus.
Growers' Market
Meanwhile, local, fair trade and organic food will be available on campus April 24 at the second UNM Growers’ Market. The event will be held at Cornell Plaza, located between the Student Union Building and Johnson Gym from 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The focus is on sustainable agricultural practices, supporting local economy and educating students about local food and agricultural issues, said student coordinator Rose Chavez.
The market will increase access to fruit and vegetable consumption while increasing food and hunger awareness.
“Buying local and organic food has a huge impact on creating a healthy and sustainable system,” Chavez said.
Last year, Sustainabilities students wrote a proposal and implemented the first UNM Growers’ Market in November.
“With the data we’ve collected, we will be able to apply for a USDA grant to institutionalize the market,” Chavez said.
Even with proper funding, the market will only be held twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring.
“The goal isn’t to compete with other markets in the area,” Chavez said. “But to raise awareness and encourage people to get hands-on and grow their own food.”
Transporation Fair
Environmental awareness is also a concern for UNM’s transportation crew. On April 22, students will get a chance to take care of the Earth by biking, skating or walking to the Alternative Transportation Fair at Cornell Plaza. UNM’s Parking and Transportation Services (PATS) is hosting the fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
It’s a celebration of sustainability as well as an educational and inspirational guide to alternative commuting options, said Cynthia Martin, PATS Program Planning Manager.
The fair will promote everything from biking, skateboarding, and walking to Vespa, ABQ Ride and the New Mexico Railrunner.
Martin points to rising gas prices and limited parking at UNM, as well as traditional environmental concerns, as reasons to take a closer look at alternative transportation.
At the fair, Albuquerque Alternative Energies will display two vehicles converted to run on vegetable oil, and the UNM Police Department will hold a bike auction.
Written April 15, 2008
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Food Fight
Student groups want voice in new SUB food contract
by KITTY HURST
Aramark’s eight-year food contract with the University of New Mexico ends this month.
In March, the Board of Regents unanimously voted to sign a new food-service contract with Chartwells, a company that said it would focus on students, according to the Daily Lobo.
“After a victory that has everyone smiling, we’re pushing on with the fight at UNM to get better and more sustainable food in the cafeterias,” said Travis McKenzie, a UNM student and activist.
Student organizations like UNM Sustain lobbied UNM not to renew the Aramark contract, but to look instead toward La Montanita Co-op, Los Poblanos Organics and other small local farmers to bring in locally grown produce and food services.
With the new Chartwells contract in place, students are still pressuring the university to provide local food.
“There is a direct correlation between a student’s healthy diet and their performance in school,” said Tanya Critchfield, a member of UNM Sustain. “UNM should offer more (food) options, for students’ health and the health of the local community.”
The Fair Food Coalition, a local food coalition made up of students and community members, began meeting last fall to create an active student voice in UNM’s food choices.
The coalition includes the New Mexico Public Interest Research Group (NM PIRG) and the American Medial Student Organization Pre-Medical Chapter among other UNM nutrition and health oriented organizations.
The coalition recently presented Walter Miller, associate vice president of Student Life, with a proposal outlining ways to encourage students and Chartwells to collaborate.
“There was a lot of hope and a lot of positive energy exchange at that meeting,” said Rose Chavez, a nutrition senior and member of the coalition.
One recommendation is a student committee that can hold companies involved accountable. The committee would act as a liaison between the administrations, Chartwells and local organic farmers.
According to the proposal, the committee will pass non-binding resolutions, promote transparency in where the food is coming from, including the cost, and receive class credit through a UC Davis sustainability internship.
The proposed committee would be comprised of half elected student officials from student government and half elected students from participating organizations.
“Students can even run an organic restaurant through Anderson [Business College], that gets its food locally or from a student run farm,” Chavez said.
Other recommendations include offering vegan soup, salad and entree options that are rotated daily. The coalition also requested signs posted to state both nutrition value and where different foods were grown and purchased. |
