Edgewood Environmental Forum show Appreciation for Cleaning and Gardening Staff

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In a gesture of gratitude and appreciation towards cleaning and gardening staff on the Edgewood campus, members of the Edgewood Environmental Forum (EEF) provided them with a light meal and food parcels for their families.

The cleaning and gardening staff were both surprised and happy by the act of kindness.

Explaining the idea further, Dr Angela James said, ‘The staff support the actions of the EEF throughout the year, especially the paper recycling project, the indigenising and food crop gardening initiatives. Every week a recycling company purchases paper from the campus. Some of the money generated from the recycling project was used to fund the event and also purchase plant seedlings for the food crop initiative.’

The EEF is engaged in environmentally sustainable activities on campus and in spreading this message and action, they have presented talks to first year undergraduate student teachers during orientation. 

They have also created the watch me grow plant initiative; run a poster campaign on student action for the environment and an environmental awareness week in which they planted indigenous trees and set up interspersed garden spaces with a variety of vegetable seedlings, including spinach, pumpkin, butternut, tomatoes and cabbages.

‘The thinking is for student teachers to be environmentally conscientised and to question their role in taking action for the environment.  In observing or engaging in these actions these future teachers hopefully will engage their learners in these actions as well. It has been a great challenge to engage as many student teachers as possible,’ said James.

The seedling crop initiative is based on the premise that students do not have to go hungry if they are able to harvest their own crops. With no guarding of crops, the students are asked to plant a seed or seedling every time they harvest a crop. This is seen as a revolutionary action, which is seen to take ground and grow with time.

‘What should also be encouraged is for student teachers to grow their own crops. Agreement has been made for the cleaning and gardening staff to grow their own crops - this will also be a great learning experience for all,’ said James.

Melissa Mungroo