Community Roots has been highly grateful for the opportunity to add two new members to our team! If you missed us welcoming our Composting intern Chloie, you can learn about what she will be doing with us HERE. This week we are excited to introduce you to our other Keynon intern, Vincent! Vincent is currently a Sophomore studying Environmental Studies and is our Local Produce Coordination Specialist for this semester! Vincent is also very interested in economics and that is what partially drew him to this position once it was posted! He has a really big passion when involving protecting our planet through our actions and the benefits of supporting our local economies.
Throughout these next few months, Vincent will be aiding our Farm to School Coordinator, Nancy Bevan, in implementing local produce into our school kitchens. Vincent and Nancy plan to approach this by contacting the Mount Vernon Local Schools Food Service Director to help us figure out what food items would be most effective to supplement the school's current menus and events to help encourage students to try and taste local foods. Once they can create a list of items, Vincent will then try to reach out to our local farmers and create an ordering system that benefits both the schools and farmers! Vincent acknowledges the challenges that he may be faced with while trying to establish local food programming in our schools, but he is looking forward to seeing how he will be able to overcome these adversities and learn how to build a successful program with Mount Vernon Schools.
Vincent has now been at Kenyon for the last year and says he wished to experience more of Mount Vernon and what is all around while he is still here. He hopes that before his study abroad in Germany next year, he can establish a program that can expand past his time with us for years to come! Once Vincent finishes his time at Kenyon, he hopes to receive his degree in Environmental Studies, but also hopes to be able to fit Economics within his studies as well. He is unsure of where he might go after this achievement, but we know that Vincent will help us change the world one garden at a time.
"There is an art, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." -Douglas Adams