University Star

Texas State students are continuing to find new and innovative ways to “go green.”

Food for Thought is an entrepreneurial campus, fresh fruit and vegetable production plan, developed by Honors students enrolled in an organic gardening class last year.

The plan was proposed to the Environmental Services Committee as an expansion of the Living Library, a garden developed to provide a learning environment for the horticulture program.

Food for Thought has slowly but surely made progress in the garden’s construction since its inception and acceptance for funding by the committee last year.

Anthony Tenaglia, alumnus and co-author of the Food for Thought plan, said the original vision behind the project was to provide students with a healthy alternative to dining halls.

“It started as a project for an Honors entrepreneurship class,” Tenaglia said. “There were five of us originally and we were tired of Chartwells serving us crap. We decided to create a plan for a sustainable way of making food for students, by the students.”

The plan was to build a garden where fruits and vegetables could be grown and sold to the student body as part of a community-sponsored agriculture project. Tenaglia and his group asked the department of agriculture if it would participate.

The group found new support to put their plan in action after speaking with Tina Cade, associate professor in the department of agriculture.

“Some honors students created an idea of a garden where they could produce fruits and vegetables,” Cade said. “They asked if the agriculture department could help. I told them they should make a proposal to the Environmental Services Committee. I helped them draft the proposal and showed them the site where it could get started.”

The Food for Thought project is still underway, despite the graduation of a few founding members. Students continue to keep the project running and have begun building the garden between the Hines Building and the Agriculture Pavilion. Travis Lee, general studies senior and supervisor of the garden’s construction, is one of the students keeping tabs on the garden’s progress.

“Right now we are building a wall around the garden site, but we should start working on other stuff soon,” Lee said. “I do a lot of the grunt work by myself. The progress is a little slow right now.

Lee mentioned the Food for Thought garden was looking for volunteers.

“Anyone can get involved,” Lee said. “We highly recommend coming to help if you need volunteer hours. It’s a great way to enjoy the outdoors and be productive.”

Contact the department of agriculture for more information on volunteering for the Food for Thought garden.