AGRINEWS PHOTO/TOM C. DORAN
Caleb Phillips (left), Sunnyside Community Garden and Food Forest manager/director, and Dave Bishop, Heartland Community College regenerative agriculture class instructor, discuss food insecurity issues during a recent tour of Bloomington garden.
A giving garden College program provides fresh food to community By Tom C. Doran
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Heartland Community College’s principles of regenerative agriculture class went to the heart of the matter recently when students visited Sunnyside Community Garden and Food Forest. The garden, located on Bloomington’s west side, is a collaborative organization that provides over 1,000 pounds of fresh organic produce to the community during the season. The focus is to provide healthy, nutritional food to underserved community members.
The class is part of Heartland’s Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources associate degree program that started this school year. “Part of our definition of what regenerative agriculture is includes making sure that the food we do produce is accessible to everyone in the community,” said instructor Dave Bishop. “It’s rather strange to think in this country — we’re the richest country on earth; we produce copious quantities of food — we waste 40% of the food that we produce. We have all kinds of federal and state programs, SNAP, WIC, food
banks, we have all kinds of assistance programs. Why is anyone hungry or food insecure? “That just doesn’t seem to make any sense. So, maybe there is more to it. Maybe throwing money at the problem isn’t really fixing it. If that’s the case, what do we need to do? And Caleb (Phillips) has been working on that and has some research on that very question.” FRESH FOOD Phillips is Sunnyside Community Garden and Food Forest manager/director and led the tour. He is a church leader with See GARDEN page 20
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