Elon University
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

Elon University has a number of partnerships in the local community that help advance sustainability. Several of those partnerships are through the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement and involve students regularly doing service, often through academic service-learning courses, at local non-profit organizations. Three of those organizations are The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World at Timberlake Farm, Sustainable Alamance and Allied Churches. The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World at Timberlake Farm offers programs for children and adults to foster a connection between humans and the earth. The vision of Sustainable Alamance is to build a stronger and more sustainable community not only by promoting wise use of local, natural and economic resources, but by identifying, developing and including underutilized human resources that are effectively prevented from participating in the local economy. Allied Churches hosts the shelter for homeless individuals and families as well as a daily feeding site for community members. They partner with Campus Kitchen at Elon University (CKEU), which provides meals once a week for shelter guests. CKEU is an on-site service opportunity through the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement for students, faculty and staff. CKEU collects food from Aramark Dining Services, a local certified-organic farm and other community partners. The program has a full-time staff coordinator as well as a student executive board (3 students) and student leadership team (11 students). In the first year of operation (10-11), CKEU donated 525 meals, 1,974.50 pounds of food and 326 hours of service to Allied Churches. The University has had a chapter of Habitat for Humanity since 1989. In partnership with the local county affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, Elon University volunteers have raised funds for and built twenty homes in Alamance County. The Periclean Scholars Class of 2011 initiated a partnership, which continues, with a local middle school to promote environmental education by creating an outdoor classroom and garden for the students. The project seeks to engage students in academic learning by linking concepts to the garden and environmental issues.