The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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  • John Cross

    Living green

June 26, 2009

Farm in the City

Program teaches sustainable living

By Robb Murray

NORTH MANKATO — South Central College hopes a new summer program for kids can teach them early the importance of being green.

The program, called Farm in the City, aims to teach kids ages 7-18 about sustainable living. The program uses hands-on activities such as gardening and cooking, as well as classroom learning, writing, working with technology and taking field trips.

“Our goal is to expand their horizons,” Panko said.

Farm in the City has been going on for 18 years in the Twin Cities, but will be offered for the first time in south-central Minnesota.

SCC faculty members Jen Panko, who teaches English, and Raj Sethuraju, who teaches ethnic studies, are heading up the college’s effort.

The program almost didn’t happen this year.

Panko and Sethuraju found out fairly recently they’d been approved for a Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation Grant for $20,000. They’d already done some planning, though, and the three-week program starts next month.

It is set up so that students can go for one, two or all three weeks, with the program fee being $120 per week (some scholarships are available).

Each week is set up basically the same but with a few variations, and each week has a different theme. For the July 6-10 session, the theme is “Planting and Environmental Impact on Plants and Productivity. For July 13-17, the theme is “Respect For the Land and Nutrition.” And for July 20-24, “Harvesting and Agricultural Jobs.”

Each week students also will go on a field trip to Farmamerica where they’ll tour the facility’s 1850-era farm site and 1930-era farm site. And at the end of each week, the students will present a capstone project to their parents. The project includes construction of a Web site.

For the culinary component of the program, area chefs, led the Mankato Country Club’s Tim Born, will teach attendees about food preparation and about how different cultures use and prepare food.

For the science component, an SCC faculty member will teach attendees about how different cultures already have solved some sustainability riddles. For example, the program during week three includes a session on sustainable architecture where they will discuss Hassan Fathy, a renowned Egyptian architect in the 1970s and ’80s.

Said Panko, “Fathy revived ancient methods of building to use local soils in a manner which alleviates the temperature extremes of the desert.”

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