Farmers feeding utah

Left: In addition to bags of flour and other food products, the first Farmers Feeding Utah event delivered and distributed sheep to Navajo families. Below: CAAS Dean Ken White was among the volunteers packing and distributing food at the Salt Lake City event.

By Matt Hargreaves, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, and Lynnette Harris

Early casualties of COVID-19 included the nation’s food supply chain and wages for countless people when work hours were cut back substantially or ended altogether, amplifying existing food insecurity problems and creating new ones. But the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Utah State University’s Hunger Solutions Institute, and combined efforts of donors and volunteers, managed to pull off “miracles” to help struggling Utahns on both ends of the food supply chain.

Even before COVID-19 blanketed the world, Utah farmers and ranchers had been suffering through a 5-year price slump. All the usual suspects were in play – droughts, tariffs, fires, tight labor supplies, and the ironic problem of being “too good” at producing food that the price reflects that of a readily available commodity, rather than a life-sustaining necessity.

Mix in a global pandemic, and you have a broken food supply chain in which farmers and ranchers lost markets for their products overnight because restaurants were shuttered, schools and their cafeterias closed, cruise ships remained docked, and few were spending extra dollars on higher-end food products. In areas of our country that were further into the harvest, this led to crops being plowed into their fields or being left unharvested, milk being dumped, and more. In the midst of all this, Utah was seeing family farms go out of business, not because of reduced demand, but because of the fragile supply chain.

“This really hit me, and I started wondering about how we could help our farmers,” said Ron Gibson, president of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation (UFBF). “It wasn’t long into this crisis that I was talking about these issues on the Rod Arquette radio show, and after the interview, I got a call from a listener from South Jordan, Utah. He wasn’t a farmer. He had zero connection to agriculture beyond eating food. But he told me that he and his wife wanted to help Utah’s farmers and ranchers and wondered about creating a GoFundMe account to help them. Tears filled my eyes as I heard his offer of help. I was truly touched that someone who doesn’t know me would reach out and try to help.”

Gibson continued to think about the offer and what would work for Utah farmers and ranchers, thinking there had to be some way to help. He appreciated the thoughtful question but wasn’t sure if farmers and ranchers would accept the help. But an idea was planted, and soon Gibson connected the goals of helping farm families and people in need of food through the Miracle of Agriculture Foundation, UFBF’s charitable arm: collect donations and use the funds to purchase food from Utah producers and get it to people struggling to feed themselves and their families.

USU Extension’s Create Better Health program teaches healthy meal planning, effective budgeting and food-shopping practices, healthy lifestyle skills, and cooking techniques. The program recently won a national award from the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior for the year’s best educational materials. Create Better Health’s resources about healthy eating and lifestyle tips for adults and children are available to everyone at Extension.usu.edu/createbetterhealth/.

USU Partners to Reach People in Need

USU’s Hunger Solutions Institute brings together research, Extension’s connections to communities throughout the state, and hunger-relief organizations. Led by Heidi LeBlanc, Extension professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences, the institute is an important part of Farmers Feeding Utah because its Create Better Health (SNAP-Ed) programs are closely connected with people throughout the state who are experiencing food insecurity.

LeBlanc and her colleagues were on board when Farmers Feeding Utah announced its first “Miracle Project” would be in Southeastern Utah in response to the Navajo Nation having been a hot spot of COVID-19 infection and people there experiencing over 90 percent unemployment as tourism-industry jobs in the area vanished. More than delivering packaged food though, the first project centered on delivering sheep to area families. The first delivery included frozen lamb and flour milled from wheat grown in San Juan County, and later the sheep arrived.

On the morning of May 25, Navajo community members came in trucks and SUV’s with trailers to Montezuma Creek—a community just east of Bluff, Utah—in a line that stretched for miles to receive sheep and flour. Recipients were selected based on need, with special consideration going to people with disabilities, single-parent families, veterans, and tribal elders. They came wearing masks and remained in their cars while the food and animals were loaded on the warm, early summer day. The sheep delivered that day benefited families in Aneth, Red Mesa, and Tódahadekanii. More sheep were purchased from ranchers in central Utah a week later and delivered to residents in Halchita, Navajo Mountain, and Oljató/ Monument Valley.

The project’s success was aided by the involvement and coordination efforts of Rebecca Benally, a former San Juan County commissioner, educator, and community member of the Navajo Nation in Montezuma Creek.

“Because of COVID-19, some people were on lockdown quarantine and they felt lonely and depressed,” Benally said. “They felt that maybe no one was thinking about them. With these sheep, people told me it had given them hope and [let] them know someone cared about them. Sheep are very symbolic of hope and prosperity. You saw people here very happy to get sheep, and they utilized every bit of the sheep to give them hope. You can give a Navajo woman diamonds or jewels, and that’s nice. But if you really want to give something meaningful, you give sheep.”

Through three deliveries in the area, Farmers Feeding Utah—aided by additional support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food—provided 600 live sheep, 16,000 pounds of frozen lamb, and 10,000 pounds of Utah flour.

Top: Navajo community members lined up early at the event in Montezuma Creek.

Top, next page: USU San Juan County Extension Assistant Professor Reagan Wytsalucy.

North for a Second Miracle

As unemployment rates in Cache County rose to more than double the number from the same month the previous year and more people sought help at the Cache Food Pantry, two important annual food drives had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Requests for help from food pantries in Box Elder and Rich counties were also up by 30 percent.

On June 23, Farmers Feeding Utah brought its second “Miracle Project” to Logan, thanks to more grassroots donations and products from Farm Bureau Financial Services, Idaho Farm Bureau, Dairy West, and Oakdell Eggs. A team of UFBF members, USU faculty, staff, and students masked up and spent the morning organizing food bundles and loading potatoes, milk, cheese, eggs, and meat into the trunks and back seats of a line-up of vehicles that sometimes stretched the length of the Maverik Stadium parking lot. In all, the food went to more than 400 families and more was donated to area food pantries.

“As the land-grant university that is proud to count so many farmers and ranchers as alumni, I can think of no better way to help them during this difficult time—and help needy families as well— than what this program has been doing,” said USU President Noelle E. Cockett. “I’m proud to have our ‘Hunger Solutions Institute’ and Extension play such a significant role in helping individuals and families in Utah, including our own students, get the food they need.”

On to Salt Lake City and Ogden

Donations to the project in amounts large and small continued as increased needs for food assistance persisted. In July, USU’s Hunger Solutions Institute identified other high-need populations using zip codes of people who had recently applied for SNAP benefits, data the institute receives to direct USU Extension education resources to people enrolled in the program.

LeBlanc said communities in certain zip codes in west Salt Lake City and West Valley City were among the hardest hit by the pandemic, and 15,000 people in the area signed-up for SNAP between January and March. A third Miracle Project served food pantries and families in the area with another drive-thru distribution operation at the Utah State Fair Park.

The real miracle may have been what happened following the SLC event when LeBlanc started making phone calls to see what could be done with food that was left when the distribution event ended. The Salvation Army in Ogden had prepared to distribute food that week, but a burglary left the organization missing some computers and all the goods that had been in the food pantry. Farmers Feeding Utah organizers and volunteers headed north with a semi-trailer loaded with meat, dairy products and produce purchased from farmers who were still having difficulties getting their products to market, and restocked the Salvation Army food pantry just in time for its distribution day.

On September 25, Farmers Feeding Utah was in Vernal to serve people in the Uintah Basin. An estimated 200+ families received meat, and fresh fruits and vegetables, and a nearly equal quantity was donated to the Ashley Valley Food Pantry. As the pandemic continues to impact lives across the state and donors continue to support the work, Farmers Feeding Utah will be a link connecting parts of Utah’s food chain. �

Top: USU Extension Professor Heidi LeBlanc was interviewed by reporters as food was delivered to Ogden. Above: Dean Ken White at the Salt Lake City event.

Taking a Virtual Leap:

Landscape Architecture Professor Helps Design Studios Transition Online by Mariah Spencer

Fortunately, LAEP Assistant Professor Ben George has spent a decade working out the logistics of teaching landscape architecture online, and he was ready to respond.

“The same week that USU decided to transition entirely online I was contacted by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board and asked to do a webinar for faculty across the country on best practices for moving their courses online,” George said. “I’ve been answering plenty of questions via email and phone from faculty across the country as they go through the process.”

Former LAEP Department Head Sean Michael has been impressed with George’s efforts to explore online formats, even before the current situation arose. “Beginning in his Ph.D. program, Ben was asking questions about how technology can be empowering and a tool for democratizing design, Michael said. “His efforts questioned the long-held notion that design education must occur face-to-face. Because of Ben’s early belief in online education, in the midst of today’s emergency migration of classes to distance education, he is now helping colleagues across America with the lessons he has learned.”

George also authored a paper about the best practices for online studio courses that the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board distributed to all landscape architecture departments across the country. The paper includes information about communicating with students, course organization, addressing student anxieties, and

useful third-party tools. It also addresses other obstacles that professors may run into as they make the transition and shares what George has learned through his experiences.

Another reminder of the global impact of COVID-19 is that the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture recently asked George to share with colleagues in landscape architecture programs around the world how they can adapt studio-based classes to an online environment.

“The biggest challenge has been taking a subject matter that is very visual and place-based and trying to translate to a purely digital and online format,” George said. “How do you effectively teach someone about the feel of a place or the impact that a landscape has on your senses? Developing pedagogical approaches and online tools that address these challenges were critical for me to create a successful online course.”

The good news is that George has found that his students have been very adaptable to moving online.

“I like to tell people about how my son grew up playing around on my iPhone and iPad, and he mastered using a touch screen and doing what he wanted on those devices, but when I tried to get him to use a mouse and keyboard he didn’t know what to do, it just seemed so archaic to him.” George said. “The majority of students are doing all of the latest and greatest with technology. This is the world they grew up in. Asking them to learn online isn’t some-

thing strange or difficult for them; they are like my son using the iPhone, it’s just natural. The reality is, these types of transitions are usually more difficult for faculty.”

While George says he doesn’t miss having to prepare lectures and hand-grade quizzes, he does miss the social relationships with his students and the energy of a classroom. He has some social interaction with his students online, but he notes that video conferencing just isn’t the same as being in the classroom or studio with them.

George wants people to trust that virtual classrooms and studios work. He has found that when the teaching approach and learning tools are designed well, an online class can be just as good, or better, than a face-to-face experience.

“This is a great opportunity for faculty and students to experiment with online education,” George said. “Yes, it isn’t ideal, but I hope that it gives them a taste of what might be possible and encourages them to explore ways that they could create online or flipped classes in the future.”

Michael added that course delivery in many disciplines may change as a result of educators around the world exploring ways to connect with students.

“Globally, campuses are adapting, evolving in their operations,” he said. “For each of us, the current challenge should make us focus on our core values. Those values are durable, critical, but they are not married to only one mode of interaction. For each of us, focusing on orchestrating the new modes for this time is our calling.” �