STATESBORO — Keep Bulloch Beautiful, Statesboro Bulloch County Parks and Recreation After-School Program, Georgia Southern University’s Center for Sustainability, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH), and College of Health & Human Sciences join forces to create a community garden for Julia P. Bryant’s After-School Program.  This unique collaboration will serve as a teaching tool for the After-School Program at Julia P. Bryant.
    The Community Garden project will expose many of the students to gardening for the first time.  The curriculum will include: Plant Life Cycles, taught by Georgia Southern Biology Students; Plant nutrition and benefits of gardening, taught by GSU Biology Students, and Human Nutrition taught by Nutrition & Food Science students.
    Once the plants reach maturity the students will have the opportunity to prepare and eat food they’ve grown. 
    “Using hands-on experience to connect children to how food is grown will give them the chance to taste vegetables they grow themselves and could encourage them to make healthy food choices,” said Lisa Sanchez, Garden Director and JPHCOPH graduate student.   
    The garden’s raised beds were constructed by Statesboro High School’s Shop Class from refurbished pallets donated by Bulloch Fertilizer. Soil
for the beds was donated by  Bulloch County’s Transportation Depart-ment, and the plants were donated by Lee Family Farms.
     “The garden is one more way that we are utilizing amazing collaborations in the after-school program.  Georgia Southern University and Keep Bulloch Beautiful are wonderful partners to have as we try to ensure the best quality after-school opportunities for the children in our community,”said Joy Deal, After-School Program Supervisor for Statesboro-Bulloch County Parks and Recreation Department.
    To volunteer with Keep Bulloch Beautiful, call (912) 764-6147 or visit www.keepbullochbeautiful.org. To learn more about Georgia Southern University, visit www.georgiasouthern.edu.