Growing Community

LSU College of Science student is giving back to the Baton Rouge community in more than one way

12/23/2020
BATON ROUGE – LSU senior biological sciences major Will delaBretonne always considered his path to be medical school, but when he became a crop consultant scout at Lance Rodriguez Agricultural Services four years ago to earn some extra money, he unearthed a new passion: horticulture. That, coupled with the fact that delaBretonne draws inspiration from his mother, a mental health counselor at Our Lady of the Lake, who works with those in vital need of assistance, pushed delaBretonne to figure out how he could give back to the local community.

“After a community service project I did with the Boy Scouts, I could see the work I put in making some kind of difference, so I felt called to continue that work,” he said. “I needed something inexpensive that I could actually do as a college student. I had worked the past four summers in the agricultural industry, and I knew that it’s not expensive to buy things, like a pack of seeds, which, you know, can turn into a basket of vegetables.

“After spit-balling some ideas with my mom, you also learn that a lot of these people don’t have a whole lot to wake up to in the morning. They don’t live the lives that we live, so I wanted to give them something tangible. Building gardens gives them a chance to pull weeds, clean vegetables and watch their food grow,” he said.

Fresh produce is not always a priority on the list of items that facilities, like the Women’s Community Rehabilitation Center, ask for in order to continue to provide for community members requiring assistance. But when delaBrettone received a $900 tax return, he decided to put the money to good use. He immediately went out and bought lumber to build a greenhouse and seeds to plant. University Baptist Church donated some space for the project, and several more boxes were built at the home of someone who works with delaBretonne’s mother to provide housing for patients.

This was December 2019, but then the perfect storm hit. Crops began to die, and volunteers were scarce. Unfortunately, the check had been spent, and items needed to resuscitate the project, like fertilizer, were too expensive for the university student to afford on his own. After setting up a GoFundMe fundraising webpage over this past summer, delaBretonne was able to raise enough money through friends and family to purchase the much-needed items for the time being. But he said he knew he would need to find other methods of making the project work.

“I decided to create a student organization, Geaux Green LSU, to see if there were other ways of raising money,” he said. “Dr. (Sheri) Wischusen was great. She kind of laid everything out in what I needed to do and what needed to be submitted to accomplish that. That was at the beginning of this Fall semester, and then all of a sudden, we had a lot of people join in.”

The group now includes at least 18 other LSU students, who work to tend to the gardens.

“Our mission is to increase access to fresh vegetables for low socioeconomic communities and educate the next generation about the benefits of healthy diet choices,” he said.

In the past couple of weeks, the club made its first donation, consisting of mustard greens and lettuce, to the Women’s Community Rehabilitation Center. And there is more to come. The gardens contain everything from greens to carrots to onions. In order to know what to plant, delaBretonne said he heavily relies on the valuable information in the LSU AgCenter’s guide, “Louisiana Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations.”       

Once social distancing no longer plays a role in how the project is run, delaBretonne said he plans on working with the women’s center and other centers to build gardens for their members to learn to tend and grow their own food.

And now that the first harvest has been given away, delaBretonne has his eyes set on even bigger plans for Geaux Green LSU.

“In addition to continuing to raise money and donations to grow the program, I want to find a way to get this into schools, to introduce kids to growing gardens, teaching them the values of fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s also another cool way to introduce kids to the things you can do with science. There’s so much we can do with it.”

“I would just love to bring this to as many people as I possibly could,” he said. “The great thing about this project is that it’s scalable. It’s not expensive to build a garden, and it’s not too much time to maintain.”

 

 

Contact Jessica Brits
LSU College of Science
c. 337-849-1201
scicomm@lsu.edu

Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
c. 510-816-8161
asatake@lsu.edu