Tristen Cortez EDINBURG – From planting to slicing and dicing, students in the Campus Food Security Initiative at UTRGV learned all the steps to becoming food-secure during the organization’s Learn to Grow Workshop.
Designed to help college students find resources and learn the skills to cook and garden, the workshop hosted four week-long sessions for students from July 17 to Aug. 18.
Claudia Garcia, UTRGV program manager for the Office of Professional Education and Workforce Development, emphasized the need to help students who struggle to afford food and groceries.
“That means giving them information about what resources are available on campus and off campus, giving them skills to even learn how to plant at home, knowing how to make decisions about what to eat and debunking lots of myths related to healthy eating,” Garcia said.
During the workshop, student mentors in CFSI, such as Nutritional Science senior Meagan Mendoza, talked to participants about food preparation in the kitchen.
“There’s a food science behind it, when you cut your food a certain way it affects the flavor of your food, and it also maximizes the efficiency of the ingredients that you have,” Mendoza said.
Ali Ramos, an Environmental Science sophomore, assisted the CFSI with gardening and planting tips, and stated that the hurdle to becoming food-secure isn’t as steep as some would believe.
“It’s an investment and you have to be willing to put in some money, and you can always get stuff at like Dollar Tree […] and it’s just like, being able to know that like buying fresh produce is very easy and it’s very cheap most of the time contrary to what people believe,” Ramos said.
Ramos shared that students can also find resources throughout UTRGV, including at the food pantries located in the University Center in Edinburg and Cavalry Hall in Brownsville.
