The Collaboration Corner

The Collaborative for the Common Good is having a busy September, and we are excited to share our abundance of community and campus events with you! Read on to learn about powerful partnerships, on-campus activities, and ways that you can get involved! Our Vista Neely will provide you with an update on our community garden, which is full of new seedlings and autumn produce, as well as fill you in on our upcoming Agricultural Immersion Camp for 8th graders in UCPS. Finally, learn more about the Union County Heritage Festival and Wild Turkey 5K run! With all of the fall activities going on at Wingate, the whole community has pumpkin to talk about!

Wingate Eats does more than serve the students, faculty, and staff of Wingate University delicious food, they strive to create positive change in the food system through meaningful food experiences that promote wellbeing for both people and planet. To guide them in their journey, they have implemented RISE, their new sustainability platform. RISE focuses on the Reduction of waste, Inspiring change, Sourcing responsibly, and Engaging the Wingate University community. Through the RISE platform, Wingate Eats has formed a partnership with Heart for Monroe to reduce Food Waste on campus by donating surplus food. To date, they have donated over 2,000 pounds of food, and are just getting started! On September 24th, they are asking student organizations to help us feed our community by donating canned goods and non-perishable items to Hearts for Monroe. The student organization that donates the most canned goods will receive a Carved and Crafted catering event for their organization. For more details on how your organization can donate contact the Wingate Eats Marketing Manager at s.gibson@wingate.edu (see picture below right).

We are proud to promote the new Wingate University Economic Information Center! Dr. Kristin Stowe, Professor of Economics at Wingate and a prior CCG fellow, has taken the impactful research from her class and students and created a place where the university can work with small business owners, non-profit leaders and government officials in curating and developing economic data and research for Anson and Union counties in North Carolina. Visit the site here to learn more about this awesome project!

The Collaborative for the Common Good is partnering with efforts on campus to show love to our quarantined Wingate students! You can help by bringing donations of snacks, funds, and encouraging messages to the CCG office in Austin Auditorium, open Monday-Friday from 9-3. The assembled care packages are sure to brighten our Bulldogs' spirits and remind them that even during hard times, we are still #OneDog!

Donate a school supply in order to participate in a night of Jeopardy with the Student North Carolina Association of Educators (SNCAE)!

Join us in Hayes 209 on September 23rd from 7-8 pm. School supplies will be collected in partnership with The Collaborative for the Common Good and Chalk it Up to Love East, an organization that distributes school supplies to Title I schools in Union County.

Candy Lapan, CCG SLCE Coordinator is partnering with Eddie Case in the Education Department to provide a unique opportunity for professional development for his ED 353 Developing Scientific Inquiry in the Elementary Grades course. The traditional approach to this course prepares preservice teachers for teaching science in grades K-6 classroom. However, this semester students will participate in a professional development series facilitated by Lapan to train them on how to incorporate service-learning into their K-6 science curriculum. Along the way, data will be collected to assess the impact of the series on students' experience, learning, and civic engagement.

We are so excited to welcome Wingate students back to the CCG with open (and socially distanced) arms! Starting on September 1st and running through the end of the semester in November, we will be hosting "The Doghouse" social events every Wednesday from 5-7 pm. Be sure to drop into Austin Auditorium for board games, art, snacks, speakers, or to learn more about upcoming projects and service opportunities!

If you have walked, jogged, or driven by the Wingate Community Garden this summer, you probably noticed all of the activities going on recently! Between the tomatoes, okra, and green beans flourishing in our raised bed rentals, zucchinis and peppers popping up in the production garden, and the local vendors and firetruck visitors to our Saturday community events, the corner of East Wilson and North Main streets was the place to be this summer!

As we say goodbye to the heat and hello to cooler autumn days, our garden is making room for new additions! Our Vista Neely harvested over 140 pounds of produce during August (donated to our local Wingate pre-school) and once the growing season was finished the amazing WU Lacrosse Team joined us during the United Way Day of Caring to help remove all of the old plants from the raised beds and production garden.

The fun isn't over yet though! The gardens may look empty now, but be sure to walk by and check out the seedlings just starting to pop up - special thanks to the WU Physical Therapy students who helped fertilize and plant new seeds. Stay tuned next month to hear more about the rainbow carrots, turnips, lettuce, kale, edible flowers, and other cool things cropping up in the Community Garden!

The CCG is partnering with local farms, community partners, and Union County Public Schools to host "Agricultural Immersion Days" this fall! During these day camps, 8th graders will spend a Saturday learning about food systems and agriculture in Union County. Each day will begin at 10 and end at 3 with lunch provided.

This September, campers from East Union Middle will be participating in "Smarty Plants", a day focused on learning more about our campus community garden (and the science behind it) as well as featuring lunchtime with our Wingate athletes and a nature hike to the campus lake!

Check out what one of our great partners is up to! LINK

What is the Heritage Festival? ... it is a day packed full of storytelling, garden talks, K9 demonstrations, great blue grass music, cooking demos and so much more! And if running is more your idea of fun -- they have a Wild Turkey 5k trail run with all proceeds going to the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue. Join in the fun or volunteer to help.

Title 1 teachers in our area often have to pay out of pocket for school supplies. Chalk it up to Love East (a student-run partner organization with the CCG) strives to alleviate the financial burden on local teachers through school supply drives.

Want to support our cause? It's easy! School supply donation bins are available in the Austin Auditorium lobby as well as in Burris Hall (outside 104D).

Questions? Email Isabelle Walle at is.walle557@wingate.edu to learn more about how to get involved!

Come join us on our CCG Against the Grain Podcast and tell it to the Campus & Community! The CCG Against the Grain Podcast is on Spotify, I Heart Radio, and many other platforms.

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Want to learn more or join the CCG? There are various ways to get in touch with us - we would love to hear from you!

Email: ccg@wingate.edu
Website: https://www.wingate.edu/around-campus/common-good
Location: Austin Auditorium, Wingate, NC, USA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CCGWingate
Twitter: @CCGWingate