Progress 07/15/23 to 07/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The Target Audiences reached during 90-day effort: Dare to Care Food Bank: Dare to Care Food Bank is one of our committed community partners. They are a local food bank servicing the Louisville and southern Indiana region. Therefore, they are aligned with our goals to build a community-based network to address food insecurity in Louisville and southern Indiana. Furthermore, Dare to Care has been a critical partner with Bellarmine University's Knighti's Pantry. This partnership allows the university to offer supplemental fresh produce at no cost to the local community, and to Bellarmine students, faculty, and staff. The Passionist Earth and Spirit Center: The Passionist Earth and Spirit Center (ESC) has had a robust collaborative partnership with Bellarmine for many years. Located only one block away from Bellarmine, the ESC regularly hosts Bellarmine interns, retreats, and other programs. They have expressed an interest in continuing and expanding their collaboration with Bellarmine through this grant. Bellarmine University's Center for Community Engagementand Knight's Pantry: The Center for Community Engagemnt is a collaborative partner in the local, regional, and global community with the mission to enrich learning and scholarship, prepare globally fluent and engaged citizens, and address critical social issues. The Knight's Pantry is a cost-free food pantry providing supplemental food and other essential items to the Bellarmine community. St. Agnes SchoolFood Pantry and St. Vincent de Paul St Agnes is a Louisville Archdioscese school neighbors the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center and is on the same street as Bellarmine. St. Agnes hosts the St. Vincent de Paul pantry. The Pantry services 150 families located throughout Louisville and Southern Indiana and is in it's fifth year of operation. Empower Fitness (a new connection) A locally owned and operated all-womens. Their goal is to guide women along their fitness journey while promoting a healthy and holistic mindset. This year, their owner estabilshed the goal of starting a gym pantry where members can bring and exchange goods such as produce, natural soaps and laundry detergents, etc. As outlined in Goal 2, this grant seeks to develop and enhance innovative connections between our community partners to build a sustainable networkfor the supply of fresh food.The reasons why we have targeted these audiences is because they are our community partners that share a common goal in addressingfood insecurity of the greater Louisville and southern Indiana communities. For example, as of June 2024, the Bellarmine Farm Community Food Project donated over 5 lbs in asparagus and 1 gallon of blackberries (Goal 1 and 2) to the Knight's Pantry. In addition, it planted corn, tomatoes, swiss chard, cantelope, green and red peppers, and kitchen herbs (tyme, basil, parsley, cilantro, and mint) seedlings for the summer garden season. Our project matters to our community partners, and Bellarmine community, because it is providing fresh and local produce where these organizations traditonally rely upon sporatic donations. Efforts: Experiential Opportunities: Bellarmine Farm Workdays - these workdays occur once a month and are desinged to genearte more interest in ourproject while also informally teaching students skills, and concepts about urban agriculture and nutrition. Furthermore, they were attached as the community engaged requirement for Dr. Abee's spring semester Environmental Justice course. It was centerd in the regenerative agriculture unit(Goal 3; Objectives 3, 4, and 5). Two undergraduate students engaged in applied research rpojects and one undergraduate student assisted in a workshop planning project.The research projects include establishinga compost disposal network that will take compostable materialsacross Bellarmine'scampus to Bellarmine Farm, andexpanding themaster garden plan for the project. Both research projects were a success. Furthermore, the compost project has been expanded to include St. Agnes whocompost food waste at the Bellarmine Farm. One undergraduate student engaged in planning a entrenprenuial workshop on starting a urban garden (Goal 3; Objectives 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4). Extension and Outreach: The Bellarmine Community Farm Project has continued toreach target audiences identified in the grant, and we have also extented our outreach to other partners to continue to build a community-based network and opportunities for addressing food secruity and educating on nutrition in Louisville and southern Indiana. These extensions and outreaches include: In September, we hosted the Sacred Heart Academy's Advanced Placement Environmental Studies classfor experiential learning activities. Sacred Heart Academy is an all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Louisville, Kentucky and is located approximately 10 minutes from Bellarmine's campus. The students helped weed, mulch, and seed for the upcoming spring season. We also discussed why it is important to seed many of spring's produce in the fall, and how composting, mulching, and protecting raised beds help fertilize the soil and keep seeds warm and protected throughout winter months. In May, the project hosted a 'Gardening Skills' Workshop with it's new partner Empower Fitness. These activities and opportunities have laid the foundation for the project; both expected and unexpected. Progess has been incremental, but intentional. It has allowed theproject to continue to make incremental gains while also developing and fostering higher levels of community engagemnet between Bellarmine Farm, and school systems. In addition, it is encouraging increased consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, educating the community and students on why local and fresh is essential to their nutrition,expanding experiential/agriculture-based learning opporuntities, and strengthening existing community partnershipsin the greater Louisville and southern Indiana area. Changes/Problems:The one major change is we have added Empower Fitness as a community partner to our project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have not fully developed opportunities for training and professional development at this time. However, the team has planned a workshop that will fulfill these goals for Fall 2024. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the Bellarmine Farm Community Project (BFCP) have been disseminated through the donated produce, engagement with community partners,project activities hosted at Bellarmine Farm, and the establishment of a new community partner with an emphasis on holistic health and nutrition. Farm Workdays and hosting of workdays and research projects have been a major way the project has dimmimentinated to education, hands-on learning opportunities, and conducted valuable research. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goals not yet met: Goal 3, Objective 3.5 We have met our goals and objectives in major ways. The remaining goal is to work with parks and recreation programs to host workshops and provide services. This will be planned in Fall 2024 with the intention of execution of the workshop in Spring 2025. Finally, the BFCFP research publication will be submitted in Fall 2024.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Bellarmine Community Farm Project (BCFP) aims to address food insecurity and food deserts in the greater Louisville and southern Indiana region. This project seeks to improve the community's health and well being by providing access to fresh and nutrious produce, by enhancing a connections between community partners, and supporting students in entretrenprenuial plans and research opportunities related to urban agriculture and nutrition. The audience we originally intend to impact is the Louisville and southern Indiana community by working alongside our community partners. This allows the project to have a direct impact on our community. We have accomplished the following goals and objectives during this 90-day period: Goal 1: Objectives 1.1 & 1.2: Bellarmine's Center for Community Engagement and Knight's Pantry shared it's raw survey data with the project. We are currently cleaning, exploring, and preparing the data for a journal publication. Objective 1.3: Summer 2023 donations: 12 gallons of fresh apples to Dare to Care Food Bank 5 gallons of tomatoes to Knight's Pantry 5 lbs. squashes to Knight's Pantry 5 lbs. zucchini to Knight's Pantry Spring 2024 donations: 5 lbs. of asparagus to Knight's Pantry 1 gallon of blackberries to Knight's Pantry Farm Workdays: BU Farm Workdays were held throughout fall and spring semesters. In Spring 2024, workdays were incorporated into the community engagment requirement for Dr. Abee's Environmental Justice course.Students from the Anthropology and Sociology, Finance, Biology, and Environmental Studies departments also attended farm workdays. October 2024: Sacred Heart Academy's AP Environmental Studies class visited the BCFP. They assisted in hands-on learning about how to seed in the ground, and weeded, mulched, composted, and covered raised beds. They also assisted in planting a pumpkin seeds for Fall 2024. Through this hands-on learning atmosphere they were able to learn the importance of growing your own food, and forethought planning when it comes to the rotation of urban agriculture crops. Objective 1.4: Students regularly use the gathering space, the picnic tables under a walnut tree, for outdoor lunches, impromptu meet ups, or a place to study outside. It is hard to quantify these visits as the space is used so frequently and is evidenced by tables being used, moved around, and the fire pit being used. Objectives 1.5 & 1.6: The BCFP was awarded a 'Mission Across the Curriculum Award' with an additional award from the Center for Community Engagement at Bellarmine University. Goal 2: Enhance connections with community partners. Objectives 2.1 & 2.2: From August to early October 2023, Knight's Pantry received 20 pounds offresh produce from the BCFP. Fresh produce donated includes raspberries, tomatoes, cucumberes, peppers,hot peppers, and herbs (mint, sage, and basil). October 2023, met with ESC for a consulation on how the BCFP can best use their greenhouses to seed and propagate spring and summer produce. In addition, we discussed best practices for nutritional and urban agricultural education workshops. May 2024, the project added Empower Fitness as a community partner and completed a 'Gardening Skills' workshop. June 2024, met with St. Agnes and St. Vincent de Paul to discuss needs of their pantry. As a result of these conversations, the tomato crop for 2024 will be redirected to their pantry. Goal 3: Objective 3.1: Started planning Fall 2024 workshop on how to create a urban garden. Undergraduate student assisted with this planning during Spring 2024. Objective 3.2: 2 undergraduate applied research projects completed during Spring 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Abee. Oneproject was on establishing a compost system for the BFCFP. One project was on expanding the garden's master plan. Objective 3.3: Farm Workdays held in tandem with the Regenerative Agriculture unit in Environmental Justice. Objective 3.4: Eagle Scout Project completed and the the scout's project was entitled, 'Compost for a Cause: Building Three Bins for Education. Consulations with University of Kentucky Extension Office. Their advise has resulted in the implementation of cover crop to restore soil health during the winter months and the pruning of the apple and pear orchard to promote tree and fruit health. In 90 days, our project has been able to accopmlish engaging the community, building up the BCFP through community partners, begin growing fruits and vegetables with unexpected community partners, and has been able to use the Bellarmine Farm space as both a place of learning and enjoyment. These accomplishments, and partnerships in the Louisville and southern Indiana community, are building knowledge about urban agriculture and nutrition, learning and applying new skills, and leading to an overall better quality of life with easier access to nutricious food.

Publications