West Virginia State University Extension Service and Café Appalachia to Offer Series of Lunch & Learn Gardening Sessions

3/9/2020

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Contact: Jack Bailey
(304) 766-4109
jbaile19@wvstateu.edu
     
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension Service is teaming with Café Appalachia to host a six-part series of gardening workshops throughout 2020. The free “Lunch & Learn” events will begin March 26 with a session on raised bed construction and irrigation. Each session will take place from 10 a.m. until noon at Café Appalachia in South Charleston.

“Café Appalachia’s beautiful garden is the perfect venue for these informative and hands-on sessions,” said WVSU Extension Agent Kristie Martin. “Hosting sessions throughout the year will allow us to educate people on a variety of aspects of gardening, from preparing for planting to tending your crops to harvesting the nutritious and delicious fruits (and vegetables) of your labor.”

"We are so excited to begin to connect our community with their food sources and provide them an opportunity to learn how easy it is to grow their own food,” said Cheryl Laws, founder and CEO of Pollen8, Inc., the non-profit parent organization of the café. “Then we will offer them to taste the reward from the food served at Café Appalachia." 

The full schedule of Lunch & Learn sessions is as follows.

• March 26: How to Start Raised Beds & Garden Irrigation
• April 23: Crop Seeding & Transplanting
• June 18: Garden Plant Care - Suckering & Pruning
• July 23: Crop Harvesting
• Sept. 24: Low Tunnels & Cold Crops
• Oct. 22: How to Winterize Raised Beds

Each workshop is free to attend. Space is limited, and registration is required by contacting Café Appalachia AmeriCorps VISTA Danielle Justice at DJustice@stepbystepwv.org or calling (304) 654-6009. Attendees are invited to have lunch at the café at a discounted rate of $8 following the sessions.

Funding for the series is provided in part by a mini-grant from Try This West Virginia. Café Appalachia is a program of Pollen8, Inc., a non-profit organization that creates social programs for families impacted by the drug epidemic in West Virginia.

Café Appalachia is located at 206 D St. in South Charleston.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi‐generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.