Opening a Dialogue About Your Food

Katrina Cohoe '12
Bonner Summer of Service at:
Cope Environmental Center, Wayne County, Indiana

As the garden manager at Cope Environmental Center, Katrina does more than pull weeds. Cohoe works with groups from Girls Inc. and Meridian Services, teaching them about planting, pest control and harvesting. Often that leads to bigger discussions.

“It opens up a dialogue for issues that go way beyond just having a garden, issues of who’s able to access what kinds of food, the food industry in the U.S., and health issues related to food,” Cohoe says.

Cohoe says that others visit the garden spontaneously, including Cope’s summer campers, who often stop by to see the plants’ progress. Parents and grandparents will come in with kids and teach about the growing vegetables are there, she says.

The groups get to keep the food they grow, Cohoe says, and she donates any extra produce to Rock Solid Ministries’ soup kitchen.

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