DALLAS (April 30, 2011)—Paul Quinn College, the oldest historically black college in Texas, is planting the seeds for community change between its fading goalposts.
Paul Quinn plowed up its defunct football field last year to create a two-acre urban farm.
College President Michael Sorrell says Paul Quinn isn’t trying to turn students into farmers, but instead wants to teach them to solve problems facing their community such as limited access to healthy foods.
Sorrell says grocers wouldn't invest in the under-served area surrounding Paul Quinn so the college is growing its own produce.
The farm produces corn, tomatoes, blueberries, squash, herbs, bees and greens, according to the project website.
The Food for Good Farm program, which has received mentoring from Yale University, provides about 10 percent of the produce for Cowboys Stadium concessions and also gives 10 percent to charities.
A small group of African Methodist-Episcopal preachers founded Paul Quinn on April 4, 1872 in Austin.
Five years later Paul Quinn moved to Waco, where it remained until 1990, when officials decided to move to the former Bishop College campus in Dallas.
At that time, Paul Quinn had an enrollment of more than 1,000 students.
