Service Learning: Cultural Kitchen

In this service learning assignment I chose to volunteer my time at the Cultural Kitchen on campus at EDCC. We helped clean up the Garden, pick up trash, Plant different vegetation, and fix up the Cultural Kitchen. This experience relates to things we learn in animal Biology because while we were working in the garden we were able to see a few different Phyla we had learned about but in there natural habitat.

Juliene Wall headed the clean up, which was a 3 hour project. Our goals of this project were to clean up the cultural Kitchen by picking up trash as well as planting, things like strawberries and other foods. During this event I mainly helped with Planting as well as cleaning up some of the wood materials that would be used to cook meals on later when EDCC hosted the next Native powwow. I also help build a new barrier for the garden from reclaimed rocks and bricks they had at the site.


This experience helped me relate a lot of the material we looked at in the class with an emphasis on what I saw and learned about being in relation to the Phyla we looked at. The difference of seeing them in there environment opposed to just learning about it in the class room. Seeing in the garden all the different Phylums coexisting and thriving of one another helped me visualize how they work together in our environment. One of the coolest thing to see there is the Bug house that they have built for all the of the bugs and other insects to live in made of Dirty wood and other reused materials.

I really enjoyed this experience and am planning to do more service learning events in the future.  Giving back time is quiet important to keep places like the Cultural Kitchen up and running because it is truly a place for the community to come together in unity. Like Julienne was saying throughout this experience this is a place for the everyone to come together. It is important to have places like this in our community.

Questions:
How many different Phylum Coexist in the gardens of the Cultural Kitchen?
How much of the materials used in the cultural kitchens are recycled/donated?
What are some of the benefits of having a Bug House near the Garden? Will the soil be more fertile?
What are some things that I can do at home to make a self sustaining Garden much like the one at the Cultural Kitchen?


Contact information of Juliene Wall
Phone 425-640-1882
Email julienne.wall@edmail.edcc.edu