Written by Melissa Vatterott, Food and Farm Coordinator. Originally published August 2015.
Local Food Hero: St. Louis Community College is a community college with four campus locations in the St. Louis Area – Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec, and Wildwood. STLCC offers two food and farm-related programs, Horticulture and Culinary Arts. At the Florissant Valley campus, students have the opportunity to participate in the campus community garden, called HomePlate, an effort led by Dr. Mark Mantueffel.
A Person Behind the Project: Dr. Mark Mantueffel, is a biology professor at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley. Through his passion for longeivity of life and supporting healthy locally sourced diet, Dr. Mantueffel is responsible for the conversion of the campus’s old baseball field into HomePlate, the campus community garden. The garden includes 20 vegetable garden raised beds as well as native prairie grasses for pollinators. In his botany class, he centers his course around “projects you can eat!” Dr. Mantueffel has been a strong ally for Melissa as she works to develop a St. Louis Food Policy Coalition.
Website: Home Plate – Florissant Valley’s Community Garden webpage