1 Growing Roots The football goalposts at Paul Quinn College in Dallas Texas rise above rows of fresh produce Sweet potatoes are ready for picking on the twenty-yard line and hens reside where the ticket booth used to be Instead of fans cheering where the bleachers once stood tilapia swim in large tanks The local football field is now a farm After Michael Sorrell became president of the struggling college in 2007 he realized funding needed to be cut in some areas He decided the football program should be one of them Sorrell also realized that the school and surrounding community had limited access to nutritious unprocessed foods a problem that faces many urban and rural communities across the United States due to a lack of grocery stores or farmers markets Instead people rely on convenience stores or fast food restaurants which typically sell processed foods that are high in fat and sugar In an attempt to bring healthier foods to the area Sorrell tried to attract restaurants and grocery store chains to build on the unused football field There weren’t any takers Then Sorrell proposed turning the football field into a farm despite the fact Schools around the world including this one in Zimbabwe are building and caring for gardens 4
President Michael Sorrell started the We Over Me Farm at Paul Quinn College that the college didn’t have an agricultural program and no one there really knew anything about farming Many people questioned Sorrell’s vision But Sorrell was determined He eventually secured the necessary funding through a local philanthropist and PepsiCo The We Over Me Farm started in March 2010 Since then the entire 2 0-acre 0 8-hectare football field has been converted into an organic farm that produces more than fifty different kinds of vegetables 6
Four beehives a chicken coop a greenhouse and a system for raising tilapia also populate the farm Community volunteers and students in work-study programs cooperate to make the farm a success as well as a community gathering place Paul Quinn College serves farm produce in the school cafeteria and sells its products to local restaurants grocery stores farmers markets and even the Dallas Cowboys stadium for concessions Through donations fundraising and the sale of crops the We Over Me Farm just about breaks even every year But it is not satisfied with stopping there As of 2015 the school had also secured funds to build both a grocery store and a restaurant the first healthy food outlets in the area A Short History of Food in the United States What’s happening at Paul Quinn College is part of a movement gaining force across the United States as more people seek out nutritious fresh and locally grown food People want to know the farm or farmer who grew their produce or raised the cow that was the source for their milk or meat And they want cooking and mindful eating to be reestablished at the center of US culture A mere one hundred years ago everyone in the United States was a locavore meaning they ate food that was produced nearby In addition most meals were cooked at home and meals were eaten together with the family There were no snack foods no frozen foods no commercially canned foods and no national food brands Then beginning in the 1930s road systems in the United States improved creating the opportunity 7
