Progress 08/01/22 to 02/02/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Local community, Laurens Central School students, local food pantries, local volunteer groups Changes/Problems:The garden experienced a number of issues during the growing season that are not uncharacteristic of the challenges faced by outdoor growing environments. During the early part of the gardening season, shortly after the garden was tilled, there were several weeks of rain which produced significant flooding. In May, we experienced the opposite pattern of weather where there were several weeks of hot weather which dried out the garden. Due to the high levels of rain, the pests, such as cucumber beetles and Japanese beetles, were more numerous and problematic than normal. As a result of these collective challenges, a number of our crops failed. However, due to these challenges, we gained valuable knowledge of how best to deal with drainage issues, the movement of the sun over the garden space, and how to manage the various pests that are in and around the garden. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Community Food Garden project provided community nutrition field work experience with students at the Laurens Elementary School, the Boy Scouts, and Chenango County 4H Campers. The project also provided nutrition training and healthy snack recipes for Laurens Central School teachers and students. The Boy Scouts received a hands-on experience in harvesting and information about how feeding programs work. The Chenango County 4H campers learned how different plants can benefit wildlife and how feeding programs work. The garden also provided healthy cooking recipes to over 1,000 visitors on the June 24 kick-off event. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the Community Garden project have mainly been disseminated through community outreach. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: The 2023 growing season began with tilling in early April. On May 6th 30 volunteers participated in Gilbert Lake State Park's Love Your Park Day planting seeds and installing walkways and bean/cucumber trellises throughout the garden. On May 13, we planted lettuce, kale, raddishes, and chard. Over the next 2 weeks we planted beans, cucumbers, yellow squash, delicata, zuchini, tomatoes, peppers, basil, onions, leeks, ground cherries, butternut squash, pumpkins and sunflowers. The garden yielded 732 pounds of produce which was donated to four local food banks: The Community Cupboard of Edmeston, the Butternut Valley Food Pantry, the Salvation Army Food Pantry, and the Gilbert Lake Employee Program. Goal 2: As in 2022, the garden provided nutrition education to members of the local community through a variety of events. On May 24, 21 students and 6 staff from the Laurens School visited the garden and planted pumpkin and sunflower seeds. On June 24, the garden hosted a "kick-off" featuring Kim Ferstler from CCI Otsego, who shared healthy recipes and upcoming programming with those who turned out. A count of 1016 people visited the garden for this event. As stated in Goal 1, 732 pounds of fresh produce was donated to four local food banks. Goal 3: As stated in Goal 2, 21 students and 6 Laurens school staff visited the garden and planted seeds on May 24.There were also a number of cooking events and food tastings offered at the Laurens Central School. On July 12, 10 students and staff of the Chenango County 4H camp visited the garden and learned how various plants provide benefits to wildlife and how feeding programs work. On August 12, the garden hosted a harvesting event with local Boy Scouts who helped harvest potatoes and beans and learned how feeding programs work. The garden hosted a closing education event on October 7 in conjunction with the Gilbert Lake State Park's Trunk or Treat event. Nine volunteers were present to assist at this event. Goal 4: Nothing to report Goal 5: The participation of a large pool of volunteers for the growing season 2023 generated 325 hours of volunteer work in the garden. Fresh food donations during 2023 growing season: Butternut Valey Food Pantry 300 pounds Community Cupboard of Edmeston 232 pounds Gilbert Lake Employee Program 150 pounds Salvation Army Food Pantry 50 pounts

Publications

Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Local community, Laurens Central School students, local food pantries, local volunteer groups Changes/Problems:Dr. Virk-Baker transitioned to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County in December 2022 and originally the plan was to do a sub-award for Dr. Virk-Baker. In discussion with USDA, SUNY Oneonta, and Cornell Cooperative Extension, Dr. Virk-Baker assumed the role of a co-PI, and collaborated with Dr. O'Shea who is currently serving as the SUNY Oneonta co-PI. Due to some logistical difficulties the sub-award work had to be delayed due to Dr. Virk-Baker's medical leave. After careful consideration of these logistical challenges, both Dr. Virk-Baker and Dr. Oshea agreed to keep the award at SUNY Oneonta. Given that the majority of the project work takes place during summer months, SUNY Oneonta will hire Dr. Virk-Baker as a summer employee and will continue to facilitate the grant work. We will expand our originally proposed Goal 3 of providing hands-on nutrition education (linking agriculture to nutrition and health) and fresh food tastings to advance the nutritional health of children at the Laurens Elementary School. In collaboration with CCE Delaware, we will provide the hands-on healthy nutrition education and fresh food tastings to children and families at the Sidney Central School. Another change for the next reporting period would be the originally proposed Goal 4: Enhance SUNY Oneonta Food & Nutrition Program student learning by connecting academic classroom experiences, nutrition research, and community service. We will be unable to work on classroom to community service because Dr. Virk-Baker is no longer teaching at SUNY Oneonta. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Community Food Garden project provided training and professional development to SUNY-Oneonta students in Dr. Virk-Baker's NUTR 243 class which engaged in a community nutrition field work experience with students at the Laurens Elementary School. This experience enabled the SUNY-Oneonta students to critically apply information learned in their NUTR 243 class to a real-world situation which drew upon their knowledge of the link between nutrition and health. The project also provided nutrition training and healthy snack recipes to Laurens Central School teachers and students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the Community Garden project have mainly been disseminated through community outreach. Dr. Virk-Baker disseminated the project results to nutrition and public health professionals at the NIH via a poster presentation. In addition, Dr. Virk-Baker presented project updates and results at a SUNY Oneonta faculty research symposium and submitted an abstract to the Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference in 2022. Dr. Virk-Baker plans to prepare a manuscript for refereed journal publication for the 2022 and 2023 project data. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are continuing the activities related to goals 1, 2, 3, and 5. The second year of community gardening season started June 2023 and is well underway. Dr. Virk-Baker was on medical leave and the gardening, outreach, and hands-on community nutrition classes have continued smoothly with assistance from Dr. Virk-Baker's multi-sectoral stakeholders. The fresh food grown in the community food garden is supporting three food pantries, and is providing hands-on gardening volunteer opportunities for local community, and local students from Laurens Central School. In collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension, healthy hands-on cooking classes and fresh food demonstrations are scheduled for the fall 2023.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal 1: Increase access to fresh food for the underserved local rural community. Dr Virk-Baker secured four lots (a total of an acre area) at the Gilbert Lake for this project. This land has never had any pesticides, herbicides, or insecticide application and had previously been in a no-mow zone. For the community food garden preparations, the land was first mowed, tilled twice as we waited for the grass roots to disintegrate and tilled again. Dr. Virk-Baker hired a local farmer for all the land prep work. Once the garden lot/s were prepped, we started the crop planting. The fourgardens were planted for the 2022 growing season, and contained a large variety of fresh mixed peppers, tomatoes, green beans, beets, kale, Swiss chard, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, winter squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes and several herbs. Ther were no fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides used for the community food garden in 2022. Dr. Virk-Baker continued to tend to the gardens throughout the summer 2022, and supported three food pantries: Butternut Valley, Community Cupboard, and Helping Hands Food Pantry. The fresh food donations were made on a weekly basis. The food donations started on August 05, 2022, and during the first growing season of 2022, the project has donated a total of 1,125 lbs of fresh food to the three local pantries. Goal 2: Improve healthy eating for the underserved rural community Outcomes. The project improved healthy eating for the underserved rural community in two primary ways: through providing hands-on nutrition education and providing donations of fresh food to local food pantries. Community members received nutrition education through the project's seven hands-on healthy cooking events and food tastings offered at the Laurens Central School. During the 2022 growing season, the project donated a total of 1,125 lbs. of fresh food to three local food pantries: the Butternut Valley Food Pantry, the Community Cupboard Food Pantry, and the Helping Hands Food Pantry. Goal 3: Provide hands-on nutrition education (linking agriculture to nutrition and health) to advance the nutritional health of children at the Laurens Elementary School The school gardening club students grew all the tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and beets plants from seeds. In collaboration with the school garden club faculty, Tom Tirado, all these plants were donated to the community food garden project. The plants were transplanted into the community food gardens in June 2022. In collaboration withCornell University Extension colleagues, we have successfully delivered seven hands-onhealthy cooking events and food tastings for the local community, these sessions were offered at Laurens Central School. We also planned for a fall harvest event but due to logistical challenges and weather-related issues we were unable to host the event in 2022. Goal 4: Enhance SUNY Oneonta Food & Nutrition Program student learning by connecting academic classroom experiences, nutrition research, and community service. Dr. Virk-Baker established successful collaborations with Laurens Central School and connected her NUTR 243 classroom to the local community in a meaningful way that provided a transformative learning experience and critical hands-on community nutrition field work experience. The project allowed students to apply the critical subjectmatter skills learned in the course. The project allowed opportunities for students to contribute individually and work together within their small groups, conduct hands-on healthy food demonstrations and taste testing to Laurens Elementary School students and teachers. The students also worked on self-reflections, and finally presented their complete projects in the classroom to their peers. As a part of the project, students were grouped into seven small groups. Working within their groups, the students selected a recipe, provided detailed justification for why they chose the specific recipe. They further worked on details of nutrition topics that were planning on addressing with the selected recipe. The students provided grade and age-appropriate detailed information regarding the link/s between their recipe ingredients to nutrition & health. The students printed copies of their recipe that included step by step preparation details for the elementary students. Dr. Virk-Baker's students did an amazing job and worked seamlessly in the school cafeteria for washing and portioning out their ingredients, and recipe pre-preps. They delivered fantastic hands-on nutrition education, recipe demonstrations, and very successful tastings for the elementary school students. Goal 5: Create opportunities for greater levels of community engagement and volunteer opportunities. For the growing season 2022, Dr. Virk-Baker successfully engaged a large pool of volunteers and generated a total of 600 hours of volunteer work (400 hrs in the garden + 150 hrs from NUTR 243 applied project + 50 hrs from seven hands-on sessions at Laurens School). During the 2023 season, the Community Garden participated in Gilbert Lake State Park's Love Your Park Day event on May 6th. During this event, 30 volunteers planted seeds and installed walkways and bean/cucumber trellises through the garden. On May 24th, 21 students and 6 staff from the Laurens School participated in a learning event in which they planted pumpkin and sunflower seeds in the garden. On June 24th, a "kick-off" event was hosted at the garden during which information on the garden was shared with people from the community who were in attendance. This event was attended by more than 1000 people. By the end of July, about 31lbs. of produce were harvested from the garden. This includes tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, beans, onions, cucumbers, and potatoes. Table 1. Community Gardens fresh food donations during 2022 growing season: S. No. Food Bank Donation schedule Outcome 1 Butternut Valley Food Pantry Aug 05, 2022 Donated 13 lbs of fresh food (cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, kale) 2 Helping Hands Food Pantry Aug 12, 2022 Donated 22 lbs of fresh food (bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans) 3 Community Cupboard Food Pantry Aug 19, 2022 Donated 24 lbs of fresh food (bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes) 4 Butternut Valley Food Pantry Aug 26, 2022 Donated 40 lbs of fresh food (cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, and tomatoes) 5 Helping Hands Food Pantry Sep 02, 2022 Donated 53 lbs of fresh food (cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, and tomatoes) 6 Community Cupboard Food Pantry Sep 09, 2022 Donated 183 lbs of fresh food (butternut squash, tomatoes, green beans, buttercup squash, spaghetti squash, corn) 7 Butternut Valley Food Pantry Sep 15, 2022 45 lbs (mixed winter squash, tomatoes, green peppers) 8 Helping Hands Food Pantry Sept 22, 2022 87 lbs (pumpkins, delicata squash, green beans, tomatoes, spaghetti squash) 9 Community Cupboard Food Pantry Sept 30, 2022 408 lbs (buttercup squash, butternut squash, corn, delicata squash, spaghetti squash, pumpkins) 10 Community Cupboard Food Pantry Oct 7, 2022 250 lbs (Spaghetti squash, butternut squash, delicata squash, pumpkins)

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Abstract presented to Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference 2022