SMU’s New Community Garden Location

September 15, 2017

SMU community garden. Perkins school of theology. Volunteers and students. Vegetables and seedlings. Food deserts.
Left to Right: Alec, Phil, Corrie, Lillian, Kunthear, Wendy. Picture taken by Dr. Robert Hunt

With the planned expansion of SMU’s Child Care & Preschool Center, the existing Community Garden had to be relocated. The new location is at 3005 Fondren Drive, in what is affectionately referred to by the community as “Fondren Village”.

Thanks to the donation of pavers by SMU Facilities, raised beds by Big Tex Urban Farms and flowers by Perkins School of Theology, the Hunt Institute was able to facilitate the relocation with the help of student, staff, faculty and community volunteers.

During the workday on Friday, September 15th, various community members walked up to welcome the new space. Without exception, all offered to pitch in and asked how they could help. We already had plans to repurpose old tree stumps for a seating area, but someone mentioned how wonderful it would be to have sunset yoga on the lawn during the fall semester. Other community members recommended outdoor solar lighting in each of the raised beds.

Alec Maulding ’19 from EWB SMU Chapter, a Mechanical Engineer major, helping to plant the fall crops.

SMU Chapter’s Engineers Without Boards (EWB) had several volunteers show up to help set up. Deborah Oyedapo ’18, the current leader of the Plant Lab group in EWB and a biology major, welcomed the opportunity for her group to use the community garden for their various experiments and prototypes. They plan to submit a proposal for modifications to the traditional design of a raised bed. Their hopes are that the design will be an improvement that will help the volunteers and teachers that typically run community gardens. “Watering is always an issue,” says Dr. Lynch from Meadows School of the Arts. “If we could design a self-watering adaptation to the current beds, that would be an improvement.” Dr. Lynch runs Get Healthy Dallas, a program aimed at addressing food deserts and obesity issues in lower income communities.

The Gather at the SMU Community Garden with Kunthear watering the plants.

Kunthear Mam-Douglas is the primary gardener and coordinator for the maintenance of the garden. Known for her creative and award-winning hats, she brings that passion for nature and craftsmanship into the care of the garden. Kunthear manages a sign-up list for watering, weeding and planting. She also coordinates a neighborhood composting group for the garden. If you would like to participate, please email Kunthear at kunthearm@sbcglobal.net.

Freedom Farm at Martin Luther King, Jr. Center

SMU. The Hunt Institute. Martin Luther King Jr. Center. Freedom Farm. Vegetables and seedlings. Students. Volunteers

August 28, 2017

Students are headed back to school, which means the hunt for school supplies has begun.  On Friday, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center held an event for families in the South Dallas area to get free school supplies for their children.  The event was first come, first served so the line was long from the start.

Tyrone Day, master gardener for the Freedom Farm at the MLK Center, and Dr. Lynch tell the kids about the greenhouse and how it works.

There were various activities for the children to participate in while their parents waited in line.  One of these activities was the Freedom Farm.  The Freedom Farm is a Get Healthy Dallas Project, in which the Hunt Institute partners with other non-profits to support the garden.  The seedling farm is still in the process of getting set up, and once it is established, it will be a way for local families to start their own vegetable gardens.

During the back-to-school event, the Freedom Farm hosted a booth where kids could plant their own vegetable seeds to take home.  Dr. Owen Lynch and his team were on site to ask kids questions and better understand existing community knowledge surrounding fresh vegetables within a food desert.

The fully-grown vegetables showed the children what their plants would one day look like.  After planting their very own seeds, kids walked through the greenhouse where Tyrone, the gardener in charge, explained how a greenhouse works and how it would look once the seedling farms had been planted.

 

The children plant their chosen vegetable seedlings to take home with them.

Howdy from Maggie, Project Lead

March 21, 2017

Howdy! Maggie here. I’m one of the (many) brains, hands, and hearts behind this project. We still have yet to name our trailer friend, but I’m hoping that will happen when we see him (her?) all painted up.

I’ve been a Fellow at the Hunt Institute since last August, so I have seen this project evolve from the get-go. And believe me, it’s evolved. I am thrilled with our little Shasta and the direction the creative team here at Hunt is hoping to take it.

This morning, we met as a group to catch up and brainstorm. We have an event at the Hunt Institute this Thursday, so that has briefly taken priority over the trailer. I had the chance to meet Mario, our trailer outfitter, over the phone to talk dimensions, windows and flooring — hint: lots of light from above and reclaimed wood 🙂 As he finishes those modifications, we’ll be able to start on the interior layout and exterior wrap. We’ll keep you posted on the design.

In the meantime, here’s a snap of our project board as of today. 31 days left! We can’t wait to meet you all in just over a month at Earth Day TX.

Meet the Team!

March 9, 2017

(From Left to Right)

Welcome to the Evie Project! We are delighted to share with you our efforts as we complete Phase 1: Retrofit. Our timeline was short, but we had the team to pull it off. Meet the Evie Team:

Kunthear is our gardener extraordinaire! She is volunteering to help with the planning and implementation. She will also be at Evie on April 22nd to run an interactive children’s activity. She is advising on the practical elements of the greenhouse, helping determine which plants can be grown in each of the different micro-systems.

Alex is advising on the inclusivity of the project, and brings an artist’s perspective. He has been with The Hunt Institute for several years designing a tablet that will help make the field of education part of a more inclusive economy.

Mili is our volunteer project manager. She brings incredible experience and expertise to the table, having worked on and managed projects in multiple countries around the world. She previously studied environmental engineering, and is now completing her Master’s in Sustainability and Development. As part of the Evie project, she is compiling best practices researching similar efforts, so we can build on what has already been done.

Alejandro is our in-house mechanical engineer. He came to SMU last semester as a freshman, though he is already taking upper-level classes. He helps in every single area of The Hunt Institute, and seems to be able to fix just about anything. For the Evie project, he is researching solar capabilities for the trailer, and designing our information towers, where we will display concept boards at Earth Day, and continue to use in HI.

Maggie is our grad student who brings a myriad of perspectives and experience. She comes from Yale where she studied architecture, and is now in her first year in the MADI program. She is designing the trailer inside and out. She is a true collaborator, works with the rest of the team to adjust her design as different complications or opportunities arise. She is the team lead on this project but approaches that role with humility, mentoring newer students and ever ready to teach others what she knows to strengthen their existing skill sets.

Silvia is a triple major in business, international studies, and Spanish. She brings a fantastic interdisciplinary perspective to each conversation as she filters through the very important, but often overlooked, element of economic viability in sustainability. Last semester, she studied abroad in Chile and returns to SMU and HI just in time to help create the content for our concept boards. By compiling the collaborative conversations from multiple meetings with her own research, she has narrowed down the concepts to four main categories.  This was a very difficult task, because there are so many potential applications for a mobile greenhouse.  Each of these categories, and their potential applications, will be on display at our booth.

Wendy is a “4+1” student, working toward her Bachelor’s and Master’s in environmental engineering. Her capstone project is on aquaponics. She is helping choose the aquaponic system to install in the greenhouse. Additionally, this system will help educate other students on the functionality of aquaponics. Her hands-on experience with community gardens brings a valuable, practical application to this design and implementation.

JD is a senior studying computer science. He has been a member of the SMU chapter of Engineers Without Boarders (EWB), and has served in leadership roles throughout his time at HI. He launched the “Greenhouse for Good” fundraiser during Mustangs Give Back 2017. He also led the “Plant Lab” team in EWB where they designed multiple concepts for micro-greenhouses, specifically targeting food deserts in South Dallas. He is advising on the hydroponic system within the mobile greenhouse, and is overseeing germination of the many plants we will be installing.

Ali is our photographer and communications manager. She joins our team this semester as an intended advertising major. She is a graphic designer, team player, and humanitarian, and joined our team brimming with ideas. In addition to her advertising and marketing support for The Hunt Institute, she is heading up an internal and external campaign to recruit volunteers and participants to join us at our booth at Earth Day Texas 2017.

Written by: Corrie Harris
Edited by: Maggie Inhofe