This project takes as its background the popularity of community engaged food learning, assembling “food field guides” that share learners’ explorations, providing a way for other learners to build on what has been explored. Taking the form of publicly available curricular guides that anyone can use, they also provide supportive background material to food, society, and environment knowledge in the neighborhoods around Hamline, making it easier for faculty, students, and communities to incorporate such explorations in their learning and other activities.

    Urban agriculture and community food hubs are becoming important cultural and economic centers in St. Paul and in the Upper Midwest in general—and they are also becoming increasingly popular venues for immersive and service learning. The impact of collaborative student and community learning could be magnified if learning experiences were easier for coordinating faculty and community leaders to share.

    We have been the recipients of countless acts of feeding and hospitality, from the Hamline Church opening its kitchen to the Hamline University community for decades to the many gardens—and now Frogtown Farm!—that welcome students and neighbors as learners and eaters. However, it is often difficult for each new group of learners to engage what others have already explored or achieved. This often puts a considerable burden on community partners to carry forward the details of what students and others in the community have done before. Our field guide project helps build social processes, storytelling tools, and archive methods that keep what has been learned circulating more actively.