On a recent afternoon, Tusculum College student Nick Baumann directed youngsters at the Backyard Learning Center at Executive Manor as they watered part of the garden they have grown. Baumann and Jennifer Wilcox, both Service Leader Scholars at Tusculum, have visited the Backyard Learning Centers at Executive Manor and Greeneville Terrace Apartments during the past school year to help the students grow their own gardens and learn about agriculture-related business. (Tusculum College photo)

"Can I have another plant? Do I need more dirt? Is this okay? What kind of eggs are we going to eat today?"

Nick Baumann and Jennifer Wilcox, Service Leader Scholars at Tusculum College, are used to fielding these type of questions from the youngsters at the Backyard Learning Centers the Greeneville School System operates for elementary school students at Executive Manor mobile home park and Greeneville Terrace Apartments.

Baumann and Wilcox, as volunteers for Rural Resources, have visited the Backyard Learning Centers each week during the 2002-03 academic year, helping the students grow their own gardens. The students have also visited the Rural Resources farm to see the chickens they ordered as they grew, and each week enjoy an edible treat made with eggs laid by the hens. The project, known as the Farm and Garden Entrepreneurship Project, also involves assisting the Backyard Learning Center students begin an agriculture related business to help them learn money management and business skills.

The weekly activities, a joint project between Rural Resources, the Backyard Learning Center, and the Tusculum College Service-Learning Center, actually had their origins in the 2001-02 academic year when Baumann would visit the Backyard Learning Centers and teach the children about poultry. The students chose a variety of chickens to order and have since visited the farm to see the chickens being raised at Rural Resources.

The activities grew in the fall of 2002 to include gardening as Baumann, joined by Wilcox, helped the children build their own raised bed organic gardens and plant seeds to grow both vegetables and flowers. Planters for the raised beds were made from materials given to assist the activities and the seeds have been donated as well.

As the weather has warmed this spring, the students have seen their efforts in the fall come to fruition as flowers have bloomed and broccoli, lettuce, mustard, and many other plants have begun to grow.

In addition, the children have enjoyed such treats as egg salad, deviled eggs, egg sandwiches, and scrambled eggs, cooked from eggs from the chickens at Rural Resources. One week, Barbara Holt, an Extension Agent from the UT Agricultural Extension Service, helped the children make their own omelets.

Baumann, an elementary education major, and Wilcox, an independent studies major, have both been active in community service at Tusculum, particularly as part of the Service Leader Scholar program. This program, coordinated by the Service-Learning Center, offers participating students a chance to perform off-campus community service work and on-campus promotion of service, while receiving training in service, and development of leadership skills. Service Leader Scholars also receive a scholarship as part of the program. For their efforts in the project, both students received Service Learning Leadership Awards during Tusculum's annual Honors Convocation on April 24.

Rural Resources has also been a part of several Tusculum College community-based research and service-learning classes held over the past academic year to support the Downtown Greeneville Farm & Garden Market, formally the Downtown Greeneville Farmers' Market. Rural Resources and the Service-Learning Center recently entered a partnership agreement to formalize the existing cooperative working relationship and provide a framework for future projects.