Classroom Garden Grows Way to Feed Changing Community

Jakob Jerabek/Graduate Student & Greenhouse Manager – Applied Agriculture and Food Studies Department/Morningside University: “I was able to help build this greenhouse through some of my classes here at Morningside and able to help get it running - and I’m now in charge.”                               

Greenhouse Manager Jakob Jerabek is working to improve food security in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.  The Morningside University graduate grew up on a farm and was recruited to play football and wrestle.  Now he oversees his Sioux City alma mater’s hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic systems.

When coupled with their outdoor garden and 76-acre farm plot, they’ve blazed a trail students can use as a template for future endeavors.

Jakob Jerabek/Graduate Student & Greenhouse Manager – Applied Agriculture and Food Studies Department/Morningside University: “We’re kind of doing our own trials with everything and comparing results.  We have students that are actually able to use that data and break it down and use it in classes.  So, they’re not just using some random textbook data.  They’re actually using greenhouse-produced data as well as the actual produce that we’re harvesting.”

The school grows everything from landscape flowers and decorative plants for special events – like poinsettias for Christmas at Morningside - to multiple lettuce breeds, root vegetables, cucurbits, nightshades, and various ethnic and commodity crops.

Dr. Thomas Paulsen/Professor & Dean – School of Agriculture and Aviation/Morningside University: “We try very hard to help find the context for students to learn.  When students are working on something that is authentic – that’s real – it means something different than if it’s just a theoretical exercise.”

Dr. Thomas Paulsen is professor and dean of Morningside’s School of Agriculture and Aviation.  He’s grown the agriculture program over the past decade, expanding facilities and acquiring land to help drive higher enrollment - which has turned heads.

Dr. Thomas Paulsen/Professor & Dean – School of Agriculture and Aviation/Morningside University: “This growth is happening, primarily, because we have tremendous support from the administration, from donors, and from alumni who believe in what we are trying to do.  And that’s really to try and bring an experiential learning opportunity to our students that is authentic and helping to solve the problems we see in the real world.”

Jakob Jerabek/Graduate Student & Greenhouse Manager – Applied Agriculture and Food Studies Department/Morningside University: “With our outdoor facilities, we recently partnered with Siouxland Food Bank.  Around 2,000 pounds of produce has been delivered.” 

In addition to filling local charity coffers, Jerabek has helped monetize fresh greens by supplying local restaurant and grocery outlets – but his year-round commercial ventures are rooted in school grounds.

Nick Gunn/General Manager – Sodexo/Morningside University Dining Service: “We went from getting a few baskets of things a year to hundreds of pounds…thousands of pounds of produce.”

Morningside Dining Service General Manager Nick Gunn says he feeds 1000 students per day across all meals and retail locations – averaging around 3,000 pounds of produce consumed every week.  Since hiring on as Executive Chef in 2018, he’s built up the greenhouse relationship to supply twenty percent of his needs while cutting costs and improving quality.

Nick Gunn/General Manager – Sodexo/Morningside University Dining Service: “When you go to wherever your local grocery store is – you buy a head of romaine lettuce.  It’s kind of a pale green with some white in it.  When we get it from them, it’s dark green.  It’s got a much different texture.  Much more of a burst of a flavor when you bite into one of their tomatoes – lot more juicier.  The watermelons are the sweetest thing we had all year.”

Gunn says students flock to campus-grown food – easily identified through their branding.  Once word reached the greater community, new markets emerged.

Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga/Professor and Head, Applied Agricultural and Food Studies/Morningside University: “Morningside provides more than 5000 Africans, that are in Sioux City, this ethnic produce.”

Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Agribusiness Professor Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga immigrated to the U.S. decades ago – working in Illinois and Wisconsin academia before joining Morningside in 2018.  She says many Africans have arrived in the area due to the low cost of living, family atmosphere, and jobs at local packing plants – but something was lacking in their diets.

Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga/Professor and Head, Applied Agricultural and Food Studies/Morningside University: “Every time I tell my colleagues, my friends, my family, Africans here – I am in agriculture, the first thing they ask me: Can you find a way to produce the ethnic produce that we are used to?”

Enter amaranth.  Not the bane of corn and soybean growers, who know it as invasive pigweed, but another variety long bred for discerning palettes outside the U.S.

Dr. Thomas Paulsen/Professor & Dean – School of Agriculture and Aviation/Morningside University: “The first thing you think of, with amaranth, is, well, gee, I never would have thought of that as being a food source, or a staple, for a community.  But it certainly has been.  It’s been an eye-opener for us.” 

Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga/Professor and Head, Applied Agricultural and Food Studies/Morningside University: “I grew up with amaranth, and I wanted to show my students that there are people, also, who are facing food insecurity because they are not used to American food.  So, they have to learn, but, at the same time, it would be helpful for them, also, to have something that they are used to.” 

While Morningside’s greenhouse grows and harvests some 30 pounds or more of amaranth monthly, their outdoor garden bursts at the seams with it and several other African crops including sour-sour, and cassava.  Thanks to key volunteers with agronomic experience in their home countries, some 700 pounds are produced per month outdoors, in-season.

Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga/Professor and Head, Applied Agricultural and Food Studies/Morningside University: “He said, when he comes here, it’s good to see family – many people.  Also, it is bargaining, you know, you can get more than when you go to the store.” 

Many customers come directly to Morningside.  Remaining harvests are sold across town at grocer Aimee International.

Dr. Annie Kinwa-Muzinga/Professor and Head, Applied Agricultural and Food Studies/Morningside University: “The demand is huge.  Believe me.  Whatever we have here is not even meeting the demand.” 

Dr. Paulsen says Morningside graduates should come away from the program with a broad, adaptable skillset, and ingenuity, with respect to value-added endeavors.

Dr. Thomas Paulsen/Professor & Dean – School of Agriculture and Aviation/Morningside University: “When we talk to our students, we say, you know, is there room for you to go back to a family operation?  Sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn’t, unless they create another stream of income.” 

Jakob Jerabek/Graduate Student & Greenhouse Manager – Applied Agriculture and Food Studies Department/Morningside University: “Two point three-three-five.”

Dr. Thomas Paulsen/Professor & Dean – School of Agriculture and Aviation/Morningside University: “I would hope that some of our students would become entrepreneurs.  I think there’s a lot of opportunity for folks in the Midwest, especially in the state of Iowa and Siouxland area, to be able to meet those kinds of needs.  It’s a different approach, but it could be done.” 

For Market to Market, I’m Josh Buettner.

Contact: Paul.Yeager@iowapbs.org