A COMMUNITY-UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION FOR SOIL HEALTH IN URBAN AGRICULTURAL SETTINGS IN ST. PAUL, MN

This presentation describes an on-going collaboration between an urban public university and a non-profit organization that addresses food security and youth employment needs in a low-income neighborhood on the east side of St. Paul, MN. Metropolitan State University is a public, adult-serving institution with relatively recent growth in science disciplines: the university currently has majors in Environmental Science, Chemistry, and Biology and is developing a minor in Earth, Water, and Climate Science. Urban Roots is a non-profit organization that employs urban middle school and high school students to grow, market, and sell garden produce through a CSA program and at local Farmers Markets.

The collaboration has developed as a partnership between the author, a geoscientist, and staff at Urban Roots. An essential third partner in the collaboration is the university’s Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship (ICES), which has provided small grants to support expenses since 2014.

Now in its fifth year, the collaboration has resulted in three key outcomes:

1. a full assessment of Urban Roots’ six garden sites, all developed in empty urban spaces across east side neighborhoods. These are former industrial or residential sites with the potential for Lead, Arsenic, or other soil contaminants. Testing for heavy metal contamination has been accomplished through commercial soil testing laboratories and with a portable XRF. We have discovered low levels of lead at two of the growing sites, and an experimental phytoremediation plan has been developed.

2. A community-engaged research experience for Metropolitan State University undergraduates. The project goals and means of analysis are accessible to first- and second-year students from a wide set of disciplines, but are also sufficiently challenging for upper division Environmental Science and Chemistry Majors, who are able to develop a deeper understanding of pXRF analysis and of phytoremediation.

3. A “Science of the Garden” curriculum developed for Urban Roots’ interns, designed for STEM engagement of diverse urban youth.

The collaboration will continue through 2019 with the initiation of a “Soil Kitchen” program, in which local residents are invited to bring their home garden soils for analysis of lead contamination.