There are more hungers inside of us other than our stomachs, said Keith Spear.

“We have a hunger for meaningful work, satisfying and challenging work, and gardening satisfies these hungers,” said the English professor. “It satisfies us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”

Spear said there are two concepts of planting food- feeding people and the second is students growing food.

“All people profit by growing healthy nutritious food,” Spear said. “A garden can feed more than the stomach, but it can fill our soul.”

The event held Monday evening had the biggest showing of the 30 Days of Change series. While only nine people showed up, the event was still deemed a success by Amanda Messinger, community service and student coordinator.

Messinger brought Spear and Karen Hart to present the event. This was the third and final speech for the series.

The prior speeches had just five to seven people in attendance, Messinger said.

There were three points that Hart and Spear mentioned toward a successful garden, which included planting a garden with a shovel, growing in containers, and constructing a compose pile.

Spear said people do not need a tiller to garden. All they need is a shovel.

“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, to plant a pine you only need a shovel,” Spear said. “The shovel you buy will last you a life-time. Buy the shovel at a hardware store, that is the best way to get a good shovel.”

Will Allen, a former professional basketball player, grew thousands of plants in containers with his company Growing Power, Inc.

Hart and Spear mentioned that having a compose pile is a win-win situation.

“It is good for a person to have the compose pile because if they need to use soil, they can just go outside and get some soil from the pile,” Spear said. “The worst case scenario is nobody uses the pile, but eventually a seed will find its place in it and will grow.”

Hart said she has two compose piles at home.

“Those three points along with the basic needs of soil, sun, and water are the lessons to be learned in Gardening 101,” Spear said.

Hart showed multiple YouTube videos on gardening.

“The normal things we eat are primarily selected as varieties that pack well, keep well, market well and look good; but are not necessarily the best tasting or most nutritious,” Spear said. “A person who grows food from their own garden has very tasty food compared to store food.”

Spear pointed out how store flowers could be deceiving in its longevity.

“Some mums you get at a store will look pretty but will not last a long time, but if you plant it in a garden, it may not look the best but it will last longer,” Spear said.

One point that Spear and Hart communicated was gardening is good for the economy and people’s health.

“The point of the 30 Days of Change series is that hunger is a huge problem not just in Kuwait and Haiti, but here in the United States and it is actually growing,” Messinger said.

Messinger hopes this event will become an annual event, and she put this whole month of events together in about three weeks.

EIU Hunger has three can dropping events coming up. They will be the Hunger Banquet 6 p.m. today at the Newman Center, the men’s basketball game 7 p.m. Wednesday, and 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the football game.

Dion Martorano can be reached at 581-7492 or [email protected].