Week 7

Tuesday, May 8th:
       Today we went to the OSU extension office and heard from both Brittany Pangburn and Joyce Shriner. The mission of the extension office is to "engage people to strengthen their lives and communities through research based educational programming." Most of the funding for their programs comes from OSU.
        Brittany is currently a graduate student that works along with the extension office in their 4-H department. 4-H is a program that is open to the children in the Athens area (they have branches across the U.S.)  Through this program, youth are able to develop various projects, ranging from raising live stock to photography. The funding comes from OSU, the county commissioners, membership fees, and sometimes from taxes (if they area supports it). Although Brittany was not a RD, the nutrition professional could have a role in helping oversee the nutrition or health science projects.
    Joyce spoke about OSU's involvement with FNP (Family Nutrition Program) which works with families receiving food assistance. They facilitate classes about nutrition-related topics so families can learn how to best nourish their bodies.


Thursday, May 10th:
        Today we heard from the Office of Sustainability about their compost system and the ecohouse. Funding for these comes from grants the office receives. Currently two dining halls on campus compost and their waste is collected and brought to the compost facility. They are currently expanding and hope to be able to include all dining halls in the future. Once composted, the end product is inspected for quality and then distributed throughout campus, mostly on landscape and the intramural fields.
     The Ecohouse is run by the Office of Sustainability and three students are given the chance to live there each year. Students must submit an application and commit to working on a project each quarter. Solar panels, rain water collection, composting, and gardening are a few things that are incorporated into living at the Ecohouse. I thought it was funny that most of the energy that is collected from the solar panels works to power the refrigerator.