By Cindy Dashnaw Many organizations are striving to find answers for the more than 200,000 people in Indianapolis who do not have easy access to food. Butler University is one of the largest. Its Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (CUES) is working with over 20 community partners to do more than simply get more food to more people. They want to create the social change necessary to eliminate the need. “We’re trying to look at problems facing the campus and Indianapolis and bring together the expertise needed to solve those problems,” said CUES Director Dr. Julia Angstmann. Indianapolis is one of the worst food deserts in the country, she says. “We don’t have enough grocery stores, or people in neighborhoods don’t have transportation to get to them. Families have to buy groceries at convenience stores.” Most people are unaware of the situation, Angstmann says. That’s why the CUES is taking the three-pronged approach reflected in its mission: “To research, educate, and empower change to inform and inspire a more sustainable future.” Like food, it all starts on a farm.
Teaching through a food lens Nestled in the curve of West Campus Drive is The Farm at Butler. This one-acre space is the heart of the CUES’ efforts to solve the city’s nutrition problems. The Farm is where the CUES begins the “research” and “educate” parts of its mission with Butler students—a rather rare thing, it turns out.
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“Most college farms are used in co-curricular ways: The farms sell or donate to the community, but they aren’t integrated into the curriculum,” Angstmann says. The Farm at Butler is much more. Yes, it has been a source of food to the community and campus, but it’s also an educational site and a significant component of curriculum and community partnerships. “Using a campus farm as a ‘place’ is relatively new in the experiential learning arena, so we’re getting a lot of interest from other universities,” Angstmann says. “We’ve been able to bring in about a million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation to innovate curriculum using The Farm as a contextual place. We are in classes all over campus, and community partnerships are woven into all of this.” The Farm pops up in some unexpected classes—for example, Senior Lecturer Brent Hege’s Religious Studies class. “Brent and I had a great discussion. How do you teach religious studies through the lens of food? We reimagined the course through food and farming, and he sent his students out to urban farm spaces where they wrote about urban and industrial farming through a loving eye vs. an arrogant eye,” Angstmann says. The CUES is also part of classes in Biology, Business, Chemistry, Communication, Education, Environmental Studies, and Pharmacy. A new minor is now available from the Science, Technology, and Environmental Studies program: Applied Local Food Systems. This minor aims to create a cross-disciplinary program where students, instructors, community members, and intern host sites will learn together.
