Growing up in Sherborn, Massachusetts, Amanda Dye \u201924 would attend an annual event in which local farmers invited the public to tour their farms and engage in conversations about their operations. Those visits accomplished two important things, she says. They exposed her to the \u201corigin stories\u201d of how our food is sourced and connected her more closely to her community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since enrolling at Clark, Dye\u2019s immediate surroundings have changed from semi-rural to urban, but the inspiration generated by those early farming experiences endures. For the past three years, Dye has worked with Worcester Common Ground<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that pursues sustainable neighborhood improvements through affordable housing initiatives, economic development, educational opportunities, and the cultivation of green spaces to promote access to locally sourced healthy food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of her work involves overseeing the Jaques Ave. Community Bioshelter (where Dye is pictured): a greenhouse that operates as an indoor ecosystem for year-round mushroom growing. The bioshelter, located a short drive from Clark, is surrounded outside by raised vegetable beds and a small fruit orchard where Main South families cultivate and harvest their own fresh produce during the warmer months. Each gardener typically tends to two or three raised beds to put food on their tables and sometimes sells to local farmers markets in areas where healthy foods can be difficult to obtain.<\/p>\n\n\n