By Mackenzie Grizzard | Staff Writer
This month, Baylor was awarded a near $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program to alleviate food insecurity in Waco’s underprivileged communities and drive sustainable agricultural practices.
The money part of a larger $17.9 million EPA Community Change grant awarded to several local Waco nonprofits whose local investments will fund future sustainability efforts.
Dr. Stephanie Boddie, a principal investigator for the project, said there is a capable team working on the project.
“I think we have a team that is really helping us to bridge divides across socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups as well as disciplines,” Boddie said.
Dr. Boddie will work alongside Dr. Joshua King, director of the Environmental Humanities minor, Dr. Kevin Magill, associate professor in the School of Education, to regenerate local food systems and reduce food waste.
“If you look at a map of Waco, you can see that food insecurity, poverty and exposure to climate risks all overlap on the same neighborhoods, unfortunately,” King said. “They tend to be neighborhoods that are low income and communities of color.”
The 2023 U.S. Department of Agriculture Report shows Texas has the second-highest rate of food insecurity in the U.S. at 16.9%. In Waco, the food insecurity rate is twice the national average, according to Shepherd’s Hope.
“It’s not always so obvious which students might be food insecure,” Boddie said. “[It’s about] taking away the stigma that can be so often associated with food insecurity and recognizing that food security is a collective challenge and one that can be easily addressed.”
The grant will advance four central initiatives over the next three years: establishing permanent urban agriculture outreach staff, partnerships with schools and faith communities, promoting student-led community engagement projects, and the creation of a food systems and community resilience exhibit at the Mayborn Museum.
According to Andrea Valdez, the EPA grant is expected to expand the impact of the project into the community. Valdez is the community garden and Urban Agriculture Outreach Program manager at Baylor’s Office of Sustainability.
“Not only are we going to increase production to be able to give back to the community, but [we’re] also going to provide workshops to give them the education that they need to be able to model this everywhere else on Waco’s community,” Valdez said.
Waco’s Sustainable Community and Regenerative Agriculture Project has just concluded its first year of collaboration with the Baylor community garden (BCG), turning it into a hands-on lab that promotes regenerative agriculture.
“So when you think about it that way, being able to create a local food system can go a long way in helping people grow their own food,” Boddie said.
This multidisciplinary effort will be concentrated in Baylor’s campus as well, according to King.
“One thing we’ll also be doing is to create these micro-grants,” King said. “[They] are basically going to go to faculty and community partners to form projects and direct student projects that directly benefit work across all kinds of disciplines.”
Aligning with the university’s new strategic plan Baylor in Deeds, the BCG and grant investigators are excited to see what the project will bring.
“The opportunity to support the flourishing of students is an important part of this project as well as the interdisciplinary work,” Boddie said. “We’re excited about the opportunities to live out this new strategic plan in ways that can engage students, faculty and staff, as well as our community partners.”
