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| Club members, Charles Duplechain, and Floyd Pelichet harvest cabbage |
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| SU Ag Center staff, Mila Berhane and Stephanie Elwood take soil samples |
Baton Rouge, La – Southern
University Agricultural Research and Extension Center helped the Zachary Men’s Club
establish a garden a few years ago. Mila Berhane, senior research
associate, and Stephanie Elwood, horticulturist and extension associate, are
both involved in promoting urban agriculture for the Southern University Ag Center. Now, the club invites people from the
community to harvest what they need from the garden.
“We got with Southern
when we first started the garden,” said Floyd Pelichet, who is retired from Vulcan.
“Southern helped us treat the soil and get ready for the garden.”
Berhane started
working with the club in 2010. “They approached us to give some assistance,”
she said. “We did some training in land prep and irrigation, and we grew
seedlings for them in the Southern University greenhouse.”
The Zachary Men’s
Club is a nonprofit organization that has served the Zachary community for more
than 50 years. Most members of the Zachary Men’s Club are retired, but they
work for a good cause almost every day in the club’s acre-and-a-half community
garden.
“Being retired
doesn’t mean you go out to pasture,” said Charles Duplechain, who had a career
in the military.
The garden is a
year-round project for the club, which raises money to support it. “We let
people come from the community and pick, and we donate food to the Zachary Food
Pantry,” Pelichet said.
“The whole city, the
mayor’s office, local businesses and Lane Hospital are all involved with the
Food Pantry,” said Pelichet, who is president of the Men’s Club. “We do the
garden and help out when we can.”
SU Ag Center’s Elwood
works with school and community gardens. She preaches the importance of gardening
in the urban environment and teaches weekly gardening classes at Scotlandville
Magnet High School, Scotlandville Middle School and the Southern Lab School.
“We build gardens
from the ground up,” she said.
Many urban dwellers
have no gardening experience, Berhane said.
The Southern Ag Center
is focused on teaching sustainable agricultural practices that are economically
feasible, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable.
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Contact:
Bridget Udoh
(225) 771-5714
