Hey there! Welcome to this introductory blogpost for the Honors 3280 service-learning course. I’m Viraj Chordiya, a senior at GSU majoring in economics and mathematics. I’m an international student from Nashik, the wine capital of India. I’m excited to share about this service-learning course and talk about my community partner Concrete Jungle!

In addition to satisfying the honors requirement, I was motivated to take this course for its community service component. I knew this was an excellent opportunity to get hands-on volunteering experience, understand some of the urban problems of Atlanta, and explore how our community partners are employing creative solutions to tackle them. The course is split equally into two components, in-person classes and community service. In the class section, we examined the relationship between nature and humans through various lenses like exploring different ideas of nature and the separation (or lack thereof) between nature and humans.

To engage in community service, I chose to work with Concrete Jungle, an Atlanta based non-profit, that finds creative ways to efficiently allocate fresh produce and fight food insecurity. They transform unused fruit trees into a healthy food source and organize various programs to farm, pick, and deliver fresh produce to those who need it the most.

I believe food is a simple yet powerful way to bring happiness and connect with others. Sharing food and having communal meals has been a big part of my Indian culture. Moreover, I love to cook, and feeding others brings me immense joy. I was inspired by Concrete Jungle’s mission of supporting food access by utilizing trees and land around the city, and hence chose to volunteer for them. I believe they have a unique approach to tackling food insecurity and minimizing waste. Through this service assignment, I’m excited to learn more about their sustainable gardening practices and their optimization methods that help them efficiently use all the fresh produce resources to fight food insecurity.