Course Meeting Time
Fall 2008
Tuesdays 1:00 PM – 3:45 PM (Longer class meeting for field trips and interviews)
Thursdays 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM

Course Description
This course introduces you to the practice of Community Service Learning—including how to engage effectively with a community through its people and organizations and how to learn deeply from that experience.  In this course you will encounter and learn from people who have different experiences, opinions, racial and ethnic and class backgrounds from yourself and you will get to know yourself better. You will develop skills for experiential learning and for taking charge of your own education—including observation, journaling, and learning circles—that you can use during your UMass education and beyond. This course fulfills the Interdisciplinary and U.S. Diversity Gen. Ed. requirements. 

Section Description: Food Security in the Connecticut River Valley
In this section, you will explore the concept of "food security" in the Connecticut River Valley communities near UMass—from hunger relief to school gardens, from farmers markets to nutrition education, and more, including a historical perspective on how these current issues came to be.  The core of the course is a weekly community service through the semester that relates to some aspect of hunger and food security.  Service opportunities include one-time participation in farm work and community meals, and long term placement at sites such as Nuestras Raíces (“Our Roots”), the Amherst Survival Center, and the Food Bank of Western Mass.

How to Sign Up
You cannot register for this course on SPIRE.  You must contact the instructor directly, who will have a short interview with you.  To register, contact Will Snyder at wsnyder@umext.umass.edu.

Instructor Information
Will Snyder
UMass Extension
413-545-3876
wsnyder@umext.umass.edu