Students, faculty members and Athens residents will meet tonight to discuss the availability of food and different ways to use it at Ohio University’s second Eco Café.
The Eco Cafés have volunteer speakers from OU and Rural Action, a local activist organization, come in and talk for an hour about social, economic and environmental issues, said Ann Brown, a local volunteer and former director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards.
The idea for cafés began with Brown and Michelle Decker, executive director of Rural Actions, thinking of ways to “give students a deeper understanding of the community,” Brown said.
The Eco Cafés are held every other Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Front Room, and the first 50 people to arrive receive a free coffee.
“(Students) don’t take advantage or learn (enough) about where we are for four years of our life,” said Andrea Blamble, a senior studying public relations who helps promote the events. “Students go to school here but don’t grasp about what happens around Athens. (We want to help them) understand Appalachia and social issues in the region.”
The first Eco Café was held on March 2, and the last will take place on May 4. The upcoming cafés will address recycling and keeping water clean.
Willem Roosenburg, chair for the environmental studies advisory board, has helped plan the cafés and says he feels responsible for educating students about the local environment.
“I think it’s my job as a biologist to try and promote as much as possible any activities on campus that can promote or enhance the environment, as not everyone is as aware of environmental surroundings as they should be,” Roosenburg said.
Although last quarter’s café had a lecture format, future cafés will involve panel discussions and more audience participation, Roosenburg said.
The Eco Cafés are a collaborative effort with six different sponsors: the environmental studies program, the international development studies program, the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, the Office of Sustainability, Rural Action and the Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies.
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