Ag Center’s Garden Program promotes agriculture, teaches healthy habits | Home & Garden

The Southern University Ag Center is hosting a summer garden program for youth ages five to 18 years old.  The goal of the program is twofold --eating healthy and exercising. Participants learn indoors and practice outdoors. Now in its second week, students went out in the garden to harvest produce. The garden grows tomatoes, cabbage, cucumber, cantaloupe and flowers. The team and the program coordinator Stephanie Elwood also spent time in the garden harvesting vegetables and flowers before the sweltering heat arrived.

Chances are that if they grow it, they will eat it. The students ate the produce they harvest during their break.

At mid-morning, they returned to the classroom where their guest speaker was waiting.Owusu Bandele, professor emeritus in horticulture presented a topic on African American agriculturalists. He also talked about the excellent agricultural academic programs available at Southern University.

“These days, agriculture is not limited to the farm only. Research and other careers that impact the food industry are very lucrative,” said Bandele.

The program held on Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon at the Horticultural Complex near the SU Ag Center Campus will end July 20.

For further details, contact Stephanie Elwood at 225-771-2134 at Stephanie_elwood@suagcenter.com