Teach for America brings college students to Tulsa for food insecurity-related projects
New soccer fields coming
Norman City Council members Tuesday approved a $761,000 contract with Planning Design Group to start the design process for the Griffin Park Sports Complex, a Norman Forward project that will add soccer fields and an indoor soccer arena to the park at Robinson Street and 24th Avenue NE.
The project will include the construction of nine outdoor soccer fields with lighting, one indoor facility and additional parking. As part of the project, 14 youth baseball and softball fields and four flag football fields will be removed. New baseball and softball fields are planned for Reaves Park in southeast Norman.
The project is funded through the Norman Forward Quality of Life half-percent sales tax approved by voters in 2015. The 15-year tax is earmarked for specific Norman Forward projects, including a new central library, an east-side library, a senior citizens center and citywide park improvements, as well as adding sports fields and indoor sports arenas. Public hearings on the design process will be scheduled as the project progresses at the 120-acre park.
Emergency Communication System contract awarded
Public safety sales tax dollars will pay for a $13.7 million contract with the Harris Corporation to purchase, install and maintain a new digital public safety radio network, a collaborative project of the Norman Police Department and the Norman Fire Department.
City council members voted unanimously Tuesday to award the contract to begin the process of replacing a communications system that will become outdated by 2018, police Maj. J.D. Younger said.
Awarding the contract to begin the replacement process is the beginning of the end of the old network, he said. Installation of the new system is expected to take about 24 months.
The city’s emergency communications system is the primary means for 911 communications officers to notify emergency first responders of incidents and the primary communications tool for incidents requiring a response from public safety officials in Norman, as well as neighboring and shared jurisdictions.
Voters approved a permanent half-percent public safety sales tax in 2014 to fund public safety needs, including a new communications system and additional emergency dispatchers, police and firefighters.
Don’t go hungry
The grand opening of a University of Oklahoma Food Pantry will be celebrated with a ribboncutting ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the pantry at 1113 Elm Ave.
The mission of the OU Food Pantry is to contribute to the overall health and wellness of the OU campus community by providing free supplemental food assistance to OU Norman campus students, faculty and staff. The campaign to bring a food pantry to campus was launched under the previous Student Government Association administration of President Daniel Pae and Vice President Michael Lutter, who tasked Executive Assistant Matt Marks to lead the campaign more than a year ago.
“We just want to help the students,” said Marks, who after leading the task force was named food pantry director in December.
“Forty percent of students at the University of Oklahoma qualify for food stamps, and hunger on college campuses is a growing issue around the nation. It’s something that needs to be brought forth and addressed,” said Marks.
The food pantry offers a range of items from vegetables and fruit to boxed goods such as pasta and cereal. Additionally, the pantry offers household items such as cups, bowls, shampoo and soap. Donations of beef by 1907 Meat Co., chicken by Chick-fil-A and eggs by Ivy Acres Farm also are available.
Students, faculty and staff affiliated with OU can access the pantry through presentation of a valid OU identification card. No further eligibility requirements are required to obtain assistance. Individuals requesting assistance should complete an online form selecting their food and household good choices at ou.edu/ foodpantry.
The pantry will be open from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays every other week. For more information about the pantry, visit ou.edu/ foodpantry.
Need answers?
Email questions about Norman to jcannon@oklahoman.com. We are running a #ThrowbackThursday image each week, showcasing Oklahoma’s history. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TheOklahoman, and “Like” us at Facebook.com/TheOklahoman for more historical photos. Linda Lynn, News Research Editor
Twenty out-of-state college students are learning about the issue of food insecurity in Tulsa and exploring innovative community initiatives this week during Teach for America’s first “Alternative Spring Break.”
The weeklong trip is meant to introduce college freshmen, sophomores and juniors — most of whom had never been to Oklahoma — to Tulsa’s opportunities for young professionals to make an impact on social challenges.
“This is really an opportunity for them to see all of the work Tulsa is doing to build leaders in social justice and social innovation,” said Hannah
Two people died in wrecks along Oklahoma roads, authorities reported.
About 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, a person whose name was not released was driving a car east on State Highway 29, about five miles east of Wynnewood. The car left the road, struck a fence and caught fire, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.
The victim, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene, troopers said.
About 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Cifuentes was driving a car east on SW 44, near Mustang Road. Oklahoma City police reported he failed to stop at a stop sign and was struck by a pickup that was traveling north on Mustang Road.
Cifuentes died at the scene. The driver of the pickup was taken to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Arnaud, director of recruitment for Teach for America Tulsa. “So hopefully, people can see that Tulsa’s a place where they can grow that leadership and actually make a difference in the community.”
The students are focusing specifically on the issue of food insecurity, learning about how it affects education and the larger community. Then, they’re leading service projects at Global Gardens and Westside Harvest Market.
Global Gardens is a nonprofit educational organization founded in Tulsa to teach students about science, peace and empowerment through community gardening.
The college students worked at two of the nonprofit’s four school sites − Union Middle School on Tuesday and McAuliffe Elementary on Wednesday.
They plan to volunteer Thursday at Westside Harvest Market, a nonprofit grocery store designed to provide healthy, affordable food to a high-poverty community.
On top of appreciating the manual labor provided by students spreading mulch and building raised beds, among other tasks, Cat Cox, a Global Gardens teacher at McAuliffe, hopes exposing them to the program will help attract people to Tulsa.
“I hope that they take away that Tulsa has this really great program and organization, because I don’t think a lot of people know about Global Gardens,” Cox said.
Erik Rocha, a sophomore studying business at the University of Southern California, said that before this week, he never would have considered living in the Midwest. The little he’d known about Oklahoma came from national news stories that were, in his opinion, unflattering for the state.
But after learning about the opportunities for young people to tackle social problems they’re passionate about, he said he’d consider living in the region one day.
That was part of the trip’s purpose — to break down negative perceptions of Oklahoma and show the potential of community initiatives in Tulsa, Arnaud said.
“I think that Oklahoma can sometimes have a bad rep in the media,” she said. “So I hope they see that we have a lot of passionate individuals that are actually working to make this community and this state a better place.”