Annual Garden to Tables Food Day Highlights the Need for Bees
10/26/2017
Saint Louis University held its seventh annual Garden to Tables Food Day Thursday, Oct. 26, highlighting the importance of pollinators in the environment.
Keynote speaker Juan William Chávez of the Pruitt-Igoe Bee Sanctuary and Northside Workshop, told the crowd that he sees similarities in the collapse of the bee population and the shrinking population of St. Louis.
Juan William Chávez, right, was the keynote speaker for Food Day. Pictured with. Chávez,
from left, are Mardell Wilson, Ph.D., dean of Doisy College of Health Sciences; Ivis
Forrester, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics; and Lauren Landfried,
instructor in Nutrition and Dietetics. Photo by Maggie Rotermund.
"We need to reconnect bees and humans," he said. "Bee hives can teach us - bees survive as a group and they thrive as a group."
Chávez's Bee Sanctuary teaches young people to tend bee hives, while also learning to work in the garden and cook what they grow. SLU's Nutrition and Dietetics staff named Chávez a local food hero at the event.
Pollinator health is topic of interest across the university. On Oct. 19, DineSLU held a pollinator-themed meal for its “Farm to Fork” dinner. Farm to Fork was a joint effort for DineSLU and University researchers Gerardo Camilo, Ph.D., Damon Hall, Ph.D., and their students.
Food Day is a partnership between SLU's Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, the City of St. Louis Department of Health and Les Dames d’Escoffier International. Food Day is designed to promote sustainable, healthy and just agricultural practices, as well as a healthier St. Louis community.