For immediate release September 30, 2011

Media contact: Jacquie Lucy 443-840-4668 / 443-761-2482 (cell)

CCBC Dundalk Community Garden donates 815.6 pounds of
fresh produce to neighborhood food service agencies

Baltimore County, Md. – The Community College of Baltimore County, Dundalk is continuing its Community Garden project and putting the “fruits” of its labor on the tables of local citizens. Dundalk Campus Dean Carol Sullivan announced that this year a dedicated cadre of CCBC faculty, staff and students raised, harvested and distributed 815.6 pounds of fresh produce to four Dundalk area food service agencies – CAN (Community Assistance Network), Dundalk United Church of the Brethren, Patapsco United Methodist Church and Rita’s Supper Table (St. Rita’s Catholic Church).

Now in its second year of operation, the CCBC Dundalk Community Garden continues to be maintained by CCBC Horticulture program faculty and staff – Horticulture Program Director Keith Henn, Luke Lukas, Chris Hoffmann and Pat Pritchard.

CCBC students Tina Gibson of Aberdeen, Md., Teresa Dutton of Baltimore, Md., Berenise Gonzalez and Mark Tasker of Dundalk, Md., Wanda Stefan of Essex, Md., Catherine Cook of Joppa, Md., and Jenny DeHitta of Windsor Mills, Md. volunteered 30.5 hours in the garden.

CCBC faculty and staff members – Amy Pucino of Baltimore, Md., Sharon Casey of Baldwin, Md., Candy Richardson, David Ludikowski and Christiana Hoffman of Dundalk, Cabrina Dembow , Luke Lukas and Pat Pritchard of Edgemere, Ryan Donnelly of Essex and Patricia Quintero-Hall of Prince George’s County – volunteered 15 hours of their lunch time to weed and harvest the garden.

As a formal educational component of this program, students taking Amy Pucino’s Sociology 141 class (Racial and Cultural Minorities) this fall have been involved in hands-on community service. Each student is providing five hours of service in the garden or at one of the agencies who received the garden’s produce. The students will also write a paper on one of the following topics: Community Gardens and Environmental Justice, or Community Gardens and Food Drought or Community Gardens and Social Capital.

“As our second year of operation draws to a close, I can see that our efforts in reaching out to others and serving those in need of basic sustenance have begun to touch our community here at CCBC,” notes Pat Pritchard, Horticulture Technician. “Students are beginning to see and understand that hunger exists right here in our own Dundalk community. They are seeing both the global and local effects of a diminished food supply.”

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About CCBC (www.ccbcmd.edu)
CCBC offers hundreds of programs and thousands of courses helping people of all ages, backgrounds and interests earn degrees, transfer, launch or advance careers, and prepare for in-demand jobs. Providing accessible, affordable and high quality education since 1957, CCBC educates more than 70,000 students each year, including half of all Baltimore County residents attending college in Maryland as undergraduates. Committed to student success and the development of lifelong learners who strengthen our regional workforce and enrich our community, CCBC has also been selected to participate in Achieving the Dream, a national student success initiative.

CCBC is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market Street, 2nd Floor West, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (267-284-5000). The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

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