Midstate college offers chance for students to get to know their food
Margaret Thomson ’19, who majors in sociology, and Sophia Mavellia ’19, an accounting & financial management major, plant seedlings with DreamCatcher Farm owner Joe Detelj. Beginning this fall, students in Bucknell’s new Food Residential College will also plant and harvest organic crops at the farm. (Photo by Emily Paine, Communications, Bucknell)
(Harrisburg) — A midstate university is giving first year students a chance to learn more about where their food comes from.
About 25 students are slated to join the new Food Residential College at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.
Residential college programs aim to bring together students with shared interests. They live together and take a seminar course in a chosen topic.
The new Food Residential College will focus on the agriculture industry and the connections food has to culture and sustainability.
Geoff Schneider, an economics professor and one of founders of the program, said he sees food as one of most important issues in the modern world.
“So I want students to be more mindful about what their food is, where it comes from, and what kind of impact it has on the planet, depending on how it’s grown,” Schneider said. “What we found in previous years is that many of our Bucknell students have not had their hands in the dirt, so the act of growing things is an interesting activity for them.”
Students in the program will work on a nearby organic farm once a week.
They will also examine the diffences between organic and industrial farming methods.
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