SP0152: Where the Sidewalk Ends

As we all benefit from the conveniences of modern day urban life, the communal deficit of knowledge about the skills needed for self-sufficient living grows, as we rely on corporations for everything from food to cleaning products. With the experience of SP0150: Self-Sufficiency Workshops now complete, the team at The Redpath Museum has observed that many undergrads (and other members of the McGill community) are not confident in their knowledge of even such a basic skill as preparing food, let alone survival skills such as foraging for edible foods.

The ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ programming will pick up the momentum from where SP0150 left off, offering eight one-hour experimental ‘lunch and learn’ workshops which bring students and staff on each campus together to learn and share skills on ancestral living skills, self-reliance, and sustainability. Topics for these talks will include: foraging for edible foods; constructing simple shelters; fire skills; carving and basket weaving; fermenting foods for preservation; composting; making your own soap and cleaning products; etc. The program will culminate with a final ‘Survival Day in the Woods,’ held at Macdonald Campus’ Morgan Arboretum where participants will spend a day practicing their skills together outdoors in the woods.

These workshops are a great way to bring together students from both campuses around a common goal of empowering themselves to find alternative, more sustainable lifestyles. They emphasize self-sufficiency, learning from and building communities. The hope is that these skills can be transferred to other realms of participants lives, and maybe even influence changes on campus in terms of curriculum, waste management, food sourcing, new clubs, new opportunities, and forms of learning.

Resources from the SPF will be used to support a project coordinator position, fees for spaces and animators on both campuses to hold workshops, and materials & transportation for the workshops themselves.

The hands-on, experiential learning and all of the skills that will be taught are related to sustainability on both the environmental and socio-economic levels. The ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’ project will promote lifelong learning and leadership by example (staff and student naturalists sharing their skills and stories), and provide participants with resources and connections to continue their own exploration and to help others learn by committing to teaching these skills to others in the community.