Cultivating Ecological Perspectives

Growing Nutrition and Foods Knowledge Through Relationship Building

Abstract

Experiential learning has been shown to improve student outcomes and enhance empathy, particularly in service-oriented professions such as dietetics. The "Just Gardens" project combines service learning, interdisciplinarity, and community involvement to support sustainable and culturally relevant knowledge sharing and learning. This presentation will: i). Share pedogeological approaches applied by the project to integrate community-based learning into competency-informed university courses; and ii). Share lessons learned and experiences from the university professors, community partners, and student perspectives. With funding from CEWIL (Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning) Canada, students in the three courses co-learned and collaborated with community gardens and emergency food programs, through both in-person and virtual engagements, enhancing learning beyond the classroom setting.