Reagan Ross (pictured right) at a workday with fellow Clemson Creative Inquiry student Carlos Morales Jr. (pictured left) and his father, Carlos Morales Sr.
Courtesy photo
Reagan Ross at work promoting sustainable, healthy food and connections with local farmers at Clemson University.
Courtesy photo
PROSPERITY — The Living Water Foundation, for the past few years, has been working to develop a community garden and wellness park that will serve residents of Newberry County.
Acting as a “farmacy,” the foundation intends for this garden and park to enhance and promote the health and well-being of those interested within the community.
In 2018, the Living Water Foundation began partnering with Clemson University’s Creative Inquiry program and Professor Dr. Kirby Player to help develop the project. Collaboration with this program and Player’s team of students has been ongoing — the foundation was able to formally hire an intern, Clemson senior Reagan Ross, for the summer of 2020.
Ross is majoring in Food Science & Human Nutrition and Anthropology and feels passionate about building sustainable and healthy local, regional, and global food systems. This led her to work with organizations in various parts of the Upstate and on campus — including the Creative Inquiry team that works with the Living Water Foundation — in an effort to enhance community health through food. While Ross has been working on the community garden and wellness park, she has conducted research centered around community capacity building, or the ways by which organizations can develop, implement and sustain their goals and objectives. In the case of the garden and park, this involves all forms of building connections with the community — which are vital to sustainably achieve the Living Water Foundation’s mission,“improve the quality of life for all people,” as founding member Dr. Oscar Lovelace puts it.
Major progress has been made in terms of community engagement, which has further led to physical progress on the land itself.
A monthly newsletter including garden progress, highlights of team members and local friends, special announcements, and involvement opportunities, has been established and is being sent to a growing list of subscribers. Foundational funding documents have been constructed that will allow for greater security and prosperity. Connections have been made with other South Carolina food security organizations that have aided in the advancement of additional programming. Relationships have been strengthened with various local stakeholders and organizations. All such elements have not only increased awareness of the community garden and wellness park, but have fostered interest and a willingness to participate and help grow the project.
The increased number of hands have come together to clean and organize food distribution facilities, saw lumber, build boxes for raised garden beds, further prepare the land, and much more — all within a matter of a few months.
Though the summer and, with it, Ross’ internship, are coming to a close, the Living Water Foundation will continue to work with Clemson University’s Creative Inquiry Program for the foreseeable future.
The first raised beds for the garden were recently installed this month. The garden is located at 600 North Wheeler Avenue, Prosperity.