Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents • Notables Class of 2007 the largest Vision Credits
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Students to help start school farm in Belize
A team of students and faculty from Bumpers College and the Division of Agriculture is in Belize this summer working on the design of a school farm for impoverished children as part of a campus-wide project. The Bumpers College team will spend a month in Pomona, Belize, to develop a sustainable farm for St. Mathew's Elementary School, said Nilda Burgos, CSES. The team will work with the school's principal, agricultural teachers from two junior colleges in the nearby city of Dangriga and Women Working for Children, a Belize service organization. Co-sponsor Jennie Popp, AEAB, said the project is part of a university-wide program, Community Development in a Global Context: An International Service Learning Program, sponsored by the U of A Honors College. Participating students enrolled in a 3-credit-hour class during the spring semester and will earn another 6 hours during the service project, which began May 20. The Bumpers College team includes Kerry Boling, an agricultural business major from Gravette; Misti Clark, an agricultural business major from Prairie Grove; Ashley Jones, an agricultural business major from Lincoln; Heather Markway, an environmental soil and water science major from Cherokee Village; Evy Rice, an environmental, soil and water major from Daingerfield, Texas; Laura Sossamon, an agricultural business major from Ozark; Mioko Tamura, a crop management major from Saitama, Japan; Lauren Webb, a food science major from Royal; and Matt Call, an anthropology major from Harrison. Popp said many of the students at the St. Mathew's school are malnourished. "They come to school hungry and the school has to determine who they can feed each day because there is not a steady supply of food." "For this first year, students will begin research, make assessments and help set the future agenda,” Popp said. “They will help design a farm business plan, select plants and animals to be raised, evaluate irrigation resources and assist with the agricultural curriculum." Burgos said the students will prepare the garden area and plant peppers. School and community workers will see the crop through to harvest and to market. Another Bumpers College team will expand the farm to other crops beginning next year. The farm development project is planned to take three years. Popp said the school will operate the farm. Food not needed to feed the children will be sold and the money used to purchase food the farm doesn't produce. "We hope that this farm can serve as a model for other schools in the region that hope to meet the nutritional needs of their students," Popp said. The Bumpers College project is part of a larger U of A project involving students from other colleges working on projects around the city of Dangriga, a city of about 10,000 on the Caribbean coast.
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