MVC Community Garden to serve as Healthy Food Oasis

DALLAS-On Thursday Mountain View College hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony in honor of its new Slow Food Community Garden. The 40-bed organic garden will serve not only as a place for area residents and the college’s students and employees to plant and cultivate their own foods, but also as a resource to cultivate their learning as well.

The Slow Food Community Garden is the first component of the Living Labs at Mountain View College and will serve as “an outdoor learning space, a neighborhood teaching opportunity and a place for students to gain hands-on experience in multiple disciplines,” says Lori De La Cruz, Mountain View College’s sustainability coordinator.

The Slow Food Community Garden is the first garden in the Dallas County Community College District that will offer garden beds for annual lease to the public. The garden will offer a much-needed opportunity for residents who lack access to fresh, affordable foods for miles around. Twenty-four of the garden’s beds will be available to the community, while the remaining ones will be used for student learning and by faculty and staff. The community garden is located on the west side of the college, northwest of the S Building, and is most easily accessible via Duncanville Road.

The Mountain View College Slow Food Community Garden was funded in part by the Wells Fargo Environmental Solutions for Communities grant program. The college was one of two Dallas-Fort Worth environmental nonprofits that received funds totaling $78,824 from the grant program, which supports projects focused on land and water conservation, energy efficiency infrastructure and educational outreach in communities across America.