Social work students craft unique way of giving back to campus

Senior social work students at Ohio University Chillicothe, Matt Bush and Devon Greathouse, recently broke ground on the Student Social Work Garden located behind the Stevenson Center on campus. The initiative is designed to give back to the OHIO Chillicothe community with hopes of producing enough food for Chillicothe community residents in the future.

Bush commented, “The idea came about after trying to figure out ways to give back to our students and our community. As a future social worker, that’s what this is all about.”

As of now, the current garden features onions, radishes, peas, beans, lettuce, and kale; although, the students hope to expand the offerings of the garden down the road especially as the seasons change.

“There’s something symbolic about this process and being a social work major,” remarked Greathouse. “Before this project, I never really understood the demand in our community and now that we’ve identified that demand, we’ve created an intervention that has potential to be effective.”

With plants starting to sprout, Bush and Greathouse hope that there will be an opportunity to setup a table on campus before the end of the semester to distribute produce to students.

If anyone is interested in getting involved with the Student Social Work Garden, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Stacey Saunders-Adams, project coordinator, at saundes3@ohio.edu.