Intersectionality and Collaboration

One key component in addressing intersectionality in green spaces is collaboration. The following pictures are at the Boys and Girls Club in Jefferson City, MO, on Earth Day last April 2024. The Specialty Crops team, along with Lincoln University of Missouri's Tri-Agriculture Club (LU Tri-Ag), collaborated with the Boys and Girls Club to plant native fruit trees. Donna, pictured in the middle of the first picture, noticed that the blacktop where the children played became very hot during the summertime, as it was exposed directly to the sun, offering no shade. She came to the Specialty Crops team with the vision of planting trees for the children. The Specialty Crops team suggested native Missouri trees, some of which are native fruit trees. The native fruit trees planted will not only provide the children with shade but will also provide them with food they can learn to tend to and harvest. For the labor of planting the trees, Chyler (pictured below) suggested LU Tri-Ag members. The Specialty Crops Team, The Boys and Girls Club, and LU Tri-Ag have collaborated in the past and will continue to collaborate in the future to promote, educate, and create more sustainable and healthy options for young community members, to college students, to the older local volunteers at the Teaching Greenhouse, one location where the Specialty Crops works on campus. This collaboration proved to be successful and fruitful (pun intended) 

(Pictured left to right: Deyana, LU Tri-Ag member, Chyler, Specialty Crop Student Worker, and Vice-President of LU Tri-Ag planting a native Missouri tree.)

(Pictured left to right: Chyler, Deyana, and Donna laying down mulch after planting a young native Missouri tree)