A POTENTIAL SOLUTION TO PVAMU S FOOD INSECURITY PROBLEM
Jaylin Lewis, Dillan Davis, Andre Johnson, Tony Green, Centell Jackson, Debra Bradford, Rafash Brew, Jeneanne Kirven, Peter Ampim, Eric Obeng, Addisie Gerenew, Aruna Weerasooriya, Subhani Bandara, Richard W. Griffin (Faculty Mentor), and Laura Carson (Faculty Mentor) Cooperative Agricultural Research Center, College of Agriculture and Human Sciences Prairie View A&M University
Food security is the state of having reliable access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. Waller County experiences food insecurity despite being one of the smallest counties in Texas. While considering access to healthy and nutritious food, our research group was involved in developing an avenue for combating inaccessibility for our PVAMU student population. The objective was to develop a sustainable year-round project to grow fresh, nutritious food to make available to our student population at an affordable cost. During the first year, we embarked upon developing ¼ acre plots for growing fruits and vegetables as well as planter boxes at the Bill and Vara Daniel Farm Greenhouse complex that produced over 600 kg of fresh produce. Cantaloupe was the most productive fruit grown, while cucumber and okra were among the top grown vegetables. Using an IRB-approved survey in the second year, over 95% of PVAMU students surveyed indicated an interest in a Farmers Market that could provide our students with fresh, nutritious foods. The survey results also indicated that our students favored the availability of strawberries and watermelons, while broccoli, carrots, and lettuce were among the students favorite vegetables. In this third year of the project, due to the onset and persistence of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Farmers Market was canceled, and the vegetables grown in the student-led garden were donated to our local community. However, based on the weights of items grown in Fall 2020, it is estimated that a one-acre plot student-led garden can produce 410 pounds of greens (collards, mustards, radishes, beets), 72 pounds of kale, 51 pounds of zucchini squash, and 174 pounds of cabbage to help in feeding our local community. Our future research will focus on increasing the amount of produce using modern agricultural practices as well as re-establishing our Farmers Market. Keywords: Food security, inaccessibility, affordable cost, fresh fruits and vegetables, farmer s market
33 | P a g e
