Yale Sustainable Food Project Welcomes Partners from Paul Quinn College

The Yale Sustainable Food Project (YSFP) will host a group from Paul Quinn College as they embark on a service project from April 17 -23 to restore some of New Haven’s community gardens.

The partnership began in 2009, when Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell met with YSFP to discuss his idea to transform the Dallas, Texas-based school’s football field into an organic urban farm. A leader in developing strategies to change the culture of food and agriculture on campuses across the nation, YSFP provided Paul Quinn College with rigorous consultation on how to build a farm and how to maintain educational programming about sustainable agriculture in a university setting.

Each spring break, a group of Paul Quinn students led by Sorrell go on a community service trip. This year, in the spirit of their new collaboration with YSFP, the group will travel to New Haven to restore existing local gardens. The New Haven Land Trust has identified at least two sites in need of upkeep, at Grand Acres Garden, 47 Grand Avenue and at Williams Street Community Garden, 52 Williams Street.

While in New Haven, the Paul Quinn group will experience the local food and green culture, as well as meet with influential figures such as chef and restaurateur Danny Meyer. Yale Dining, which is committed to providing sustainable food on campus, will host a luncheon to welcome President Sorrell and his students. Media who wish to attend the event or would like additional information, including visual materials, should contact jacqueline.lewin@yale.edu.

The Yale Sustainable Food Project was founded in 2001 by Yale students, faculty and staff, Yale University President Richard Levin and Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant. The Yale Sustainable Food Project believes that the world’s most pressing questions regarding health, culture, the environment, education, and the global economy cannot be adequately addressed without considering the food we eat and the way we produce it. By creating opportunities for students and our community to experience food, agriculture, and sustainability as integral parts of their everyday lives, the Project encourages individuals to effect meaningful change as leaders in their communities, their homes, and their life’s work.

Paul Quinn a private college located in Dallas, Texas, holds the distinction as the oldest historically black college in the country west of the Mississippi River. The college is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).