MOULTRIE, Ga. (WALB) – Members of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Boys & Girls Club gathered around three raised beds behind the Club’s parking lot.
The beds were filled with soil and plants. The Club members were learning about growing their own food and nutrition from a group of student physicians from the nearby osteopathic medical college.
According to the release, peas, bell pepper and butter crunch lettuce plants filled one of the beds where Boys & Girls Club members took turns using watering cans and spraying neem oil on the plants to keep the pests away.
That day three members of PCOM South Georgia’s Student National Medical Association (SNMA) provided directions and asked questions about the afternoon’s nutrition lesson and lessons from previous weeks.Emeka Ikeakanam (DO ‘26), aka “Mr. E” to the students, quizzed the group of Boys & Girls Club members known as the Garden Club.
Their eager responses included words such as cholesterol, fiber, chlorophyll and calcium. Then the Club members asked “Mr. E” plenty of their own questions. Ikeakanam’s fellow SNMA members, Savannah Finley (DO ‘26) and Nahimie Louissant (DO ‘26), joined in with answers.
Planning for the garden project began in the fall of 2022 with the first planting in the spring of 2023. That first round of the project was so successful that SNMA members decided to continue with a fall 2023 garden.
SNMA member Schiley Pierre Louis (DO ‘25) says “This project started from a desire to engage students in learning more about nutrition, and the benefits of healthy food and a healthy lifestyle. It is one thing to know that we should eat healthy food, but it is better when there is a tangible example of what it means and the process that makes it a reality. Moreover, gardening can also teach valuable life lessons that apply beyond gardening.”
SNMA members received funding for the project through the Albert D’Alonzo, DO Endowed Memorial Award, which is presented by PCOM Institutional Advancement.
Copyright 2023 WALB. All rights reserved.