Market Farming Grows
Cover: JCCC students walk to the test gardens at the K-State Research and Extension Center.
Students raise one of three high tunnels in the K-State Research and Extension Center practicum gardens.
JCCC Sows Sustainable Agriculture
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erry Sexton, Lawrence, who has plans to be a wholesale grower of ornamental grasses and shrubs as part of a career change,
enrolled in the Sustainable Agriculture Fall Practicum, gaining hands-on experience seven hours a week at the Kansas State University Research and Extension Center, 35230 W. 135th St., Olathe. The practicum is part of JCCC’s new 28-hour sustainable agriculture entrepreneurship certificate program that provides education in agriscience and agribusiness, focusing on sustainable agriculture, market farming, the preparation of locally grown food and entrepreneurship. The program is a partnership among JCCC’s hospitality management, horticulture and entrepreneurship programs and K-State. As part of the practicum, students tend three test gardens and two open fields surrounded by
A colorful fall harvest fills baskets at the K-State Research and Extension Center.
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woods in a bucolic setting, learning the broad range of tasks encountered by the market farmer. Work is seasonal. During the fall 2008 semester, the first-ever semester of the practicum, students erected high tunnels to allow for three-season gardens – spring, fall and summer. Other tasks include production and marketing of summer and fall crops; planning; integrating crop management and crop rotation; maximizing soil fertility and recordkeeping. On the first day of a heavy frost, students tread lightly through the garden so as not break off leaves of hardy survivors. Floating row covers protect the greens while allowing light, water and air to penetrate. Fall and winter garden crops include Russian red kale, dandelions,
radishes, carrots, onions, broccoli, turnips, arugula, Osaka purple mustard, claytonia and hon-tsai-tai. Bok choy and red and green peppers from the summer fill baskets near the barn. The K-State Extension Center is a 342-acre experimental research center for flowers, vegetables and turfs, tucked away at the western terminus of 135th Street. Dr. Ted Carey, professor of horticulture, K-State, and adjunct professor of horticulture, JCCC, leads the class, assisted by Laura Christensen, extension assistant and market farmer. The practicum is offered spring, summer and fall semesters. “Things are way overseeded,” Carey said as students walked through the gardens. “Turnips and carrots need thinning.” The 342-acre experimental research center provides a beautiful backdrop for class.
Three of the students in today’s class already have degrees: Sexton; Patty Love, Prairie Village, interested in the nursery business; and Chance Hurst, Overland Park, a chef who sees sustainable agriculture as an extension of his profession. At this time, the practicum is listed as a corequisite to Commercial Crop Production, a course designed to familiarize market farmers with plant materials and production, taught by Stu Shafer, professor of sociology and market farmer for more than 20 years. “There is a need for more people to grow fruits and vegetables for local markets,” Shafer said. “The number of farmers markets has grown exponentially, and there is a huge demand by grocery stores to find local growers.”
Chance Hurst checks greens after a frost.
Shafer said students in his class who follow through on their sustainable agriculture business plans, their final project assignments, should do well. In spring 2009, Shafer is also teaching a new class, Sociology of Food, proposed as an elective to the sustainable agriculture entrepreneurship certificate. “This class is about people’s relationships that center around food,” Shafer said. “In studying the ways food is produced and consumed, we will also discover the ways food shapes and expresses relationships among people.” And more courses are on the way. JCCC is on the threshold of academic sustainability offerings with an Energy Performance and Resource Management program in the works. The first certificate in this area will be the Residential Energy Auditor Technician, pending approval by the Kansas Board of Regents. Other offerings to come.
Students gain practical experience with the broad range of tasks facing the market farmer as part of their Sustainable Agriculture Practicum.
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Dining Services Means Business Staff Sheila Schurz, Raschel Paige, Lori James and Jean Keating are the administrative staff in Dining Services.
CCC Dining Services is a professional organization serving 4,000
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faculty, staff, students and community members a day through
the Food Court, Dining Down Under, Café Tempo, javajazz and Encore! Espresso. Another 600 to 700 people grab a quick snack from the 65 campus vending machines. Catering contracts have doubled in the last year. But behind this large-scale food service operation is an administrative staff of four women who act like family – keeping order and covering each other’s backs when the need arises. Jean Keating, accounting clerk, administrative assistant I; Lori James, senior accounting analyst; Sheila Schurz, administrative assistant II, and Raschel Paige, office assistant, call themselves a team. “I refer to them as the glue that keeps Dining Services together, the administrative staff behind the scenes who keep everything together,” said Jay Glatz, manager, Dining Services. “We are a team,” James said. “We have our general responsibilities, but the customer comes first so we fill in as needed.”
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General responsibilities for James, a 23-year JCCC employee, are accounts payable, inventory control, menu data and point of sale. Keating, who has been at JCCC since 2001, oversees payroll for a staff of 100, accounts receivable, oncampus catering accounts and off-campus catering contracts of fewer than 100 people.
Schurz, a 17-year JCCC employee, is responsible for Dining Services deposits and associated paperwork. Paige, part-time since July 2008, helps with deposits and posts menus. Then there are other duties as assigned, such as operating a cash register or helping with catering. “We fill in everywhere,” Keating said. The women say the diversity is what makes their jobs enjoyable. And they seem to know where one leaves off and another picks up. “We cover for each other,” Schurz said. “We all know how to do each other’s jobs.” “I never worry when one of the four takes vacation or calls in sick. The others help out,” Glatz said. “They make my job easy. I’ve worked with several administrative staffs during the past 25 years, and this one is the most efficient and hardest working.” So behind the scenes of a showy Poached Salmon Tossed with Bow Tie Pasta, Chili-Orange Sauce and One Side or aromatic Chicken Cordon Bleu with Cheese Sauce, there is paperwork and organization. “There is more to dining services than cooking a meal,” James said. “You have to manage inventory, pay bills and pay the staff.”
Family Bakery Serves Gluten-Free Goodies ustomers buy goodies from one bakery
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they say improves the quality of their life.
Carreen Blankenship, a local entrepreneur and client of the Small Business Development Center, launched Olivia’s Oven, a gluten-free bakery, in 2006 to provide safe products for customers with celiac disease.
free commercial facility.
“We offer service to people that need it,” Blankenship said. “We want to help people.”
Blankenship said Bryan-Smith acted as a sounding board and provided wisdom.
People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and oats. It causes a variety of symptoms from stomach disorders to malnourishment and death.
“She was always pushing me to think bigger,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship knows firsthand about the disease. She, her mother and two daughters live with celiac disease. Her daughter, Olivia, now 4 1/2, was diagnosed first.
Bryan-Smith said as the community better understands celiac disease, Blankenship will meet an unserved need.
“It rocked our world,” Blankenship said. “But all for the better.” Prior to Olivia’s diagnosis, Blankenship operated a bakery selling cookies made with traditional gluten flours. After Olivia’s diagnosis, Blankenship and her husband, Shawn, began experimenting with family recipes substituting traditional flours with gluten-free ingredients like rice flour, potato starch and xanthum gum to produce cookies, birthday and wedding cakes, pies, cupcakes, breads, pizza crust and buns for the wholesale bakery they operate today. She wholesales her products, which are also dairy-free and nut-free, to grocery stores and restaurants throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area. During the early stages of operating her bakery, Blankenship sought guidance from the SBDC, which assists aspiring and existing local entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. Malinda Bryan-Smith, director of the SBDC, helped Blankenship develop a business plan, which resulted in a loan that funded a gluten-
“She helps people with celiac disease live a better life,” Bryan-Smith said.
SBDC Carreen Blankenship is the owner of Olivia’s Oven.
Olivia’s Oven received The Pitch Kansas City’s Best of Kansas City 2008 for Best Gluten-Free Option and the 2006 Emerging Business of the Year from the SBDC. “She has the passion, she understands the industry and she’s willing to learn,” Bryan-Smith said. Anna Danner, whose son copes with celiac, said the quality of his life improved once she started sending him to school with Blankenship’s gluten-free breads. “Her bread tastes more normal,” she said. “It allows him to eat what other kids eat.” Blankenship plans to open a retail bakery and café in the near future. “We want to offer safeness,” she said. “That’s a huge piece of mind.” Learn more about www.oliviasoven.com.
Olivia’s
Oven
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by Linda Friedel
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Pacer Plans for Crises Staff
irginia Tech posts on its Web site a moving memorial titled
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“We Remember,” in honor of the 32 students and faculty killed
Alisa Pacer, JCCC emergency preparedness manager, is seen here in the Police Department conference room with officers Bob Greenwood (left) and Woody Hersey.
in a school shooting April 16, 2007. While no one can predict a random act of violence, natural disaster or outbreak of a disease, JCCC has placed a high priority on advanced planning by hiring its first emergency preparedness manager, Alisa Pacer, who began work Dec. 12, 2008. Pacer, who reports to Police Department Chief Gus Ramirez, has been tasked to coordinate a comprehensive college emergency management plan. In her position, Pacer will work with campus groups, such as risk management, information technology, the College Information office, Campus Emergency Response Committee and JCCC Community Emergency Response Team volunteers. She will identify emergency management training needs, conduct hazard and vulnerability assessments, implement emergency management training programs and coordinate simulations. She will apply for and assist in administrating state, federal and county grants relating to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and emergency preparedness. In the community, Pacer will serve as the college’s representative on state and local Homeland Security and emergency policy-making bodies and maintain relationships with the Johnson County Regional Police Academy, other law enforcement and first-responder agencies. In the case of a crisis, Pacer will be part of the Police Department’s incident command center, involved in notification, communication and adherence to college policies.
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“I am excited that I have been given the role of emergency preparedness manager as well as the resources to institute emergency management plans,” Pacer said.
New communication resources include a public address system and Altiris server management software for alerts via the computer. Y2K and 9/11 increased emphasis on an industry known as “disaster recovery and business continuity.” Pacer comes to JCCC with credentials in the industry. For the last three years, she owned a business, CPS (Continuation Planning Solutions), LLC, Kansas City, Mo., where she specialized as a safety and regulatory consultant and business continuity crisis manager for businesses across the United States. Previous to owning her own business, Pacer was a senior business continuity analyst in the Corporate Planning Department, DST Systems Inc., Kansas City, Mo., coordinating and facilitating the development and maintenance of business continuity plans to enable the company’s ability to respond to and recover from crises. Pacer has served as president and board member of Partnership for Emergency Planning, a partnership of private businesses and public sector service agencies dedicated to emergency planning issues in metropolitan Kansas City. She received a bachelor of science degree in business management from Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Ill., and Certified Business Continuity Professional Certification from the Disaster Recovery Institute International, a leading professional organization in business continuity. “A lot of crisis planning has already been done at the college,” Pacer said. “My goal is to take emergency preparedness to the next level.”
Oda Flies High with His Dream
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hen Habtamu Oda was a boy of 7 herdi n g c a t t l e i n t h e
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E t h i o p i a n countryside, he saw an airplane fly over
the mountains. Oda told his father that some day he wanted to fly in an airplane, and his father laughed. A month later, Oda’s father told him that if he seriously wanted to fly in an airplane, then he would need an education. So Oda was allowed to attend elementary school, walking back and forth from his village five miles a day, sometimes barefoot. When it came time for high school, Oda’s father bought him a bike so he could travel an even longer distance. Because of his high grades, he was accepted to Addis Ababa University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics. “In developing countries, it is not easy to have access to an education,” Oda said. “Most people stay in the fields, marry young and remain in the village where they were born. I appreciate my Dad for letting me go to school.” After graduation, Oda worked in the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance. Later he took a job as a project manager for registered nongovernmental organizations such as Serve the Children, which provides education and counseling to children and families in need especially in West Africa, India and Indonesia, and Hope Enterprises, which serves people in Ethiopia. And that is when the time came for Oda to fly in an airplane. “If you have a dream and work hard, you can achieve anything,” Oda said. Oda is proof of his own wisdom. Oda has been a college custodian from July 2000 to the present while earning an associate of arts degree in 2005 at JCCC and a master’s degree in social work in May 2008 from the University of Kansas. He worked 6 p.m.-2 a.m. at the college and attended classes during the day, also spending time with his wife and two young children, who were ages 4 and 6 in 2000. While Oda already had a bachelor’s degree in economics, he wanted to attend JCCC to familiarize himself with the U.S. education system and complete prerequisites for the KU master’s program. A good student, Oda had a 3.39 GPA with 78
credit hours from JCCC and a 3.93 GPA at KU. KU accepted Oda directly into its master’s program based on an evaluation of his Addis Ababa University degree and JCCC courses. “JCCC was the beginning for me,” Oda said. “Attending classes here gave me the energy and courage to get my master’s degree. In respect to education, nothing is impossible.” Oda is grateful to Campus Services supervisors for their support. He was allowed flexible hours in order to fulfill his social work practicums. Now with a master’s of social work, Oda has short-term, mid-term and long-range goals. Most immediately he wants to work in the Kansas City metro area as a social worker at a social service agency or as a counselor. In approximately eight years, he plans to return to developing countries with a goal to work for an international organization like UNICEF helping children and older adults displaced by war or famine. And finally, he would like to establish an organization to help homeless and disadvantaged children, advocating for human rights on issues of poverty and homelessness in developing countries.
Habtamu Oda earned his master’s degree in social work in May 2008.
“That is my vision,” Oda said.
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State of the College JCCC president Dr. Terry A. Calaway will deliver his annual State of the College address at 2 p.m. Friday, March 27, in the Polsky Theatre in the Carlsen Center. A reception follows from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Carlsen Center lobby. The State of the College address informs the community of major college accomplishments and issues. The event will be available for viewing the following week at http://video.jccc.edu and on the college’s cable TV channel on Channel 17 (SureWest or Time-Warner) or Channel 22 (Comcast).
Dr. Terry A. Calaway is seen in this photo before the 2008 State of the College address.
JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 12345 COLLEGE BLVD OVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299
ThisMonth This Month at JCCC is published nine times a year by Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210-1299; 913-469-8500, fax 913-469-2559. www.jccc.edu This Month at JCCC is produced by College Information and Publications and the Office of Document Services.
Editor: Peggy Graham Photographer: Bret Gustafson Designer: Randy Breeden When planning your estate, remember Johnson County Community College. For more information, call Emily Fowler, JCCC Foundation, 913-469-3835.
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