The World Central Kitchen organization has food security and resilience program that offers direct financial support to small farmers, fishers and agribusinesses. According to the St. Croix Source, in the short-term, the grants awarded will help food-related small businesses, which saw their operations paralyzed by hurricanes Irma and María, and to revitalize and regenerate their long-term capacity for the production, distribution and sale of food. In the long-term, Plow to Plate aims to decrease the high rate of food imports into the USVI by supporting local food production. Read the full article here.
Estimated to creating 125 construction jobs and 300 permanent agricultural jobs, RTPark, the 30-acre Tech Village project being undertaken by the University of the Virgin Islands Research & Technology Park is slated to be built on agricultural land across from the St. Croix campus. RT Park announced that the Tech Village will feature 60 units of residential housing, a building designated for commercial space, a 120-room “teaching hotel,” a conference room, a solar micro-grid and 16 acres of designated farming space. In total, 60 percent of the site will be strictly dedicated to farming and agriculture. To read the full article on the St. Croix Source, click here.
With the decrease in activities and summer classes due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Southgate Coastal Reserve has used the time to enhance the preserve that includes three trails that now sport signs and benches, and at the end of one trail, an elevated bird hide stands on the edge of the 25-acre salt pond. Read the full article here from the St. Croix Source.
On August 8, the Sea Turtle Research Project — an ongoing sea turtle tagging project — at the University of the Virgin Islands was featured on the Science Saturday virtual event hosted by UVI, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and VI-EPSCoR – the Virgin Islands Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Science Saturday is a series aimed at children and families. To read the full article about the project feature, go to St. Croix Source.
The St. Croix Foundation has announced that $16,000 in scholarships were awarded to six St. Croix graduates this month during a virtual presentation. The Scholarships were awarded through the Patrick and Amelia Williams Opportunity Fund and SCF’s Foundation Scholars Fund. The Patrick and Amelia Williams Opportunity Fund provides scholarships to students who have had to overcome obstacles to continue their education, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and now COVID-19, according to the foundation. For more information on the scholarships, read the full article on the VI Consortium here.
USVI has been providing training opportunities for women of color to enter into the computing field. Women of color are underrepresented in this industry and UVI’s Research and Technology Park started an accelerator program that they hope will help more Virgin Islanders get involved in technology careers. The St. Croix Source reports that the program aims to help tech ideas transform into tech businesses, and 80 percent of the businesses the program accepts are local businesses. Read the Source’s interesting interviews with women of color from the V.I. in the technology field regarding their career paths and how they think more women in the territory can get involved in tech here.
