Two grants received recently are allowing the South Arkansas Community College Library to start a garden on the college’s West Campus, intended to help cope with local food insecurity problems.
The library is one of 300 to participate in the Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries initiative, presented by the American Library Association. It came with a $3,000 grant that will generate community discussions food insecurity and support development of the SouthArk Library Learning Garden.
The library also recently received Innovation Mini-Grant from the SouthArk Foundation to support this project, which already is underway.
With the garden, the library is expanding beyond established library services and programming to offer services both educational and practical, director Philip Shackelford said.
“We are honored to participate in this program,” Shackelford said. “Food insecurity is a significant challenge that impacts our students here at South Arkansas Community College and our surrounding community as well. The SouthArk Library looks forward to learning and innovating to help eliminate food insecurity in our area.”
Farm-to-table sustainable food systems are a trend emphasizing locally-sourced food that not only supports healthy communities, but also strives to address issues related to food sustainability, “food miles” and waste.
The purpose of the SouthArk Library Learning Garden is to utilize existing library resources in conjunction with the garden and greenhouse to create partnerships that will educate SouthArk students, employees and surrounding community members about self-sufficiency, food literacy and sustainability through gardening, Shackelford said.
As part of the ALA grant, the library staff will take an online course in how to lead these conversations.
Food insecurity is a pressing challenge for our area, the director said. Those interested in learning more should contact Shackelford at (870) 864-7116 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
