“I got this rainbow carrot seed package and it has orange carrots and yellow carrots and purple carrots. It’s really cool!” Michelle Russell ’11 said. An Environmental Studies major and Art minor with a concentration in painting, Russell clearly has a passion for gardening.

As a worker in Colby’s Organic Garden, affectionately named “2 Feet 2 Bedrock,” Russell is in constant contact with Joseph Klaus, Assistant Director of Dining Services. Together, the two decide which fresh veggies will make it into the College’s dining halls.

“Joe was really helpful in relations between the dining halls and the garden. [He figured out] what the dining halls want and [had] the political will to make it happen,” Russell said.

It is due in part to this relationship, and certainly to her interest in organic gardening, that Russell has been asked by the College to speak at a workshop at this year’s Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) Conference.

This year’s CFSC Conference is aptly named “The Gumbo that Unites Us All.” 2010 will mark the 14th year that the CFSC has organized the event. Since this year’s theme is “Food, Culture and Justice,” conference participants will focus primarily on food security and social justice.

The conference will be held in New Orleans from October 16-19. According to the conference website, it will feature workshops on topics such as “rebuilding local food economies, environmental justice, public health links, food policy councils [and] urban agriculture.”

Russell will be traveling to the conference with Karen Upton, a representative of Sodexo Campus Services, and James Boushka, marketing director for University Dining Services at UC Davis. As a team of three, they will be leading a workshop entitled “The Journey to Local—Creating and Implementing a Sustainability Plan.”

Sodexo Inc., the company represented by Upton at the conference, is “the leading provider of integrated food and facilities management services in the U.S.,” according to its website. Dining hall workers at the College are contracted through Sodexo.

“The Journey to Local” workshop will bring together voices from two campuses, Colby and UC Davis, that have “food programs that are pushing the boundaries of what [Sodexo has done] before…having more local, organic things that are being developed on campus,” Russell said.

The College is footing the bill for Russell’s trip to New Orleans and her participation in the conference. At the conference, Russell will have the opportunity to attend other workshops.

“[The College] also wants me to go and learn different things from people and bring that knowledge back and share it,” Russell said.
Other opportunities for educational enrichment at the conference include networking sessions and self-guided tours of New Orleans. The CFSC has also invited Michelle Obama to be the closing keynote speaker.

Klaus, who is unable to attend the conference, invited Russell to go in his stead.

In response to why she was invited to attend the conference, Russell said, “I think that people in the Environmental Studies department knew that I’ve been working at a community-supported farm.” Russell has spent many of her summers working at Rosaly’s Garden in Peterborough, NH. She and her mother also helped start the Daloz Farm and Mill Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Hancock, NH. “They were a small farm, they were trying to figure out where to go [before we stepped in],” Russell said. Their CSA now serves about 70 people.

“I’ve been involved with the Colby garden since it started [in 2008],” Russell said. Eight to 10 people work in the garden regularly, and at least 30 people who pitch in every once in a while.

“Lots of [underclassmen] seem to be interested, which is really exciting to see because…those of us who are seniors are happy to see those people who have interest carry [the garden] forward.”
Russell looks forward to returning from the conference with new knowledge to share.