Service-Learning in Action
Hello! My name is Sue Jenkins and I work in the Art Department at Marywood University. As a tenured professor teaching undergraduate courses in web design, interactive media, graphic design, and photography, one of my favorite things to do in the classroom is service learning.
If you are unfamiliar with this term, service learning refers to a style of learning that combines community service, or engagement of some kind, with a college level class project. Acquiring knowledge in this direct way helps students identify community needs, gain hands on experience with a real business, reflect on the experience, and connect it to what they’re studying in the classroom in preparation for their chosen careers. Remarkably, Marywood’s faculty and students regularly log 100-200K service-learning hours every year, and I love providing the opportunity for my students to participate in that.
Finding local businesses to work with each year has been relatively easy here in NEPA. When I’m ready to meet a new business to partner with, I mostly seek out local nonprofit organizations with limited budgets and time flexibility to allow for a semester long project. This provides ample time to teach new skills and develop a finished product or service for our clients within the 16 week semester timeframe. Over the past twelve years, I’ve partnered with eighteen different local businesses like ScrantonFringe.org, Anthracite Heritage Museum, GardenOfCedar.org, and Meals on Wheels of Wyoming Valley to provide design services like logo development, brochure and flyer design, social media graphics, and website design and development. One of my all-time favorite connections has been working with the Co-op Farmer’s Market in Scranton, PA, where my students and I have had the distinct privilege of providing them with complimentary graphic and web design services through service-learning hours in the classroom.
Connecting with Community Through Design & Service
Our first service learning experience with the Co-op Farmer’s Market began in 2013 when Marywood art students created the market’s current hand lettered logo and designed their first website with HTML and CSS. Since that time, we’ve updated their website three more times, including a conversion to the WordPress platform and some theme changes and updates, most recently in the spring of 2026. You can read more about these projects and find a list of all the contributing Marywood art students on the market’s Contact Us page at: https://coopfarmersmarket.com/contact-us/
Today the Co-Op Farmer’s Market website provides site visitors with an opportunity to plan their visit and pre-explore the market, from learning about the vendors and discovering what’s in season, to reading about the market’s history in Scranton since its establishment in 1939. There’s also a fun gallery page where you can experience the history of the Co-Op Farmer’s Market in Scranton through newspaper clippings from the 1950’s to the present, along with seeing pictures featuring special events like cooking demonstrations, musical entertainment, past Halloween parades, and special guests from regional organizations like the Scranton Public Library and PennState Extension.
Shop Local, Make a Real Impact
One of the reasons I love doing service-learning specifically with the Co-Op Farmer’s Market is that I know any attention we can give them through our efforts makes a positive impact on everyone in our NEPA community. And why not toot their horn? The Co-Op Farmer’s Market in Scranton is unique in that it’s “the only open-air seasonal market of its kind in Northern Pennsylvania that is solely owned and operated by the farmers serving you.” I love shopping here for fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, honey, syrup, jam, apple cider, eggs, bread, flowers, and more. If you haven’t been here yourself yet, pick a date soon and visit. Shopping here weekly, or as often as we can, helps us eat fresh and live more healthy lifestyles while supporting real farmers in our community.
The Co-Op Farmer’s Market opens every M/W/F from 11am-5pm from mid-July through Thanksgiving every year, including Labor Day and Columbus Day. Here are some testimonials about the market from visitors on Yelp:
Designing for Real Customers
Each time my students work on the farmer’s market website for a service learning experience, in addition to evaluating the look and feel which includes colors, typography, imagery, and decorative elements, we examine the whole structure of the site and its contents, seeking opportunities to improve the design, layout, and navigation, as well as the entire customer experience. To that end, the most recent update of this site in spring 2026 includes some exciting structural changes.
For instance, not many people knew this, but the website already had a blog showcasing local News Items and Recipes featuring literal farm-fresh ingredients. However, the menu link to find the blog was buried deep in the old navigation structure making it hard to find and explore. For the current design, the blog link was relocated to the main menu to make it more visible and accessible. The rest of the menu was then updated to support meeting the vendors and planning your visit. Furthermore, while looking at the already published blog content, the students discovered that the blog was in desperate need of some fresh news items and healthy recipes. That gave me an idea!
To make the recipe section of the blog more visible, I proposed an idea to my contact at the Co-Op Farmer’s Market: What if we invite the Marywood’s Nutrition & Dietetics students in Professor Emily Wargo’s ND-312 Community Nutrition course to create and submit healthy recipes featuring fresh produce that my graphic design students in ART-441H Web & Interactive Design could then add to the website as part of their training during the fall 2026 semester? The market agreed, and Professor Wargo and I have been working with our students behind the scenes for the past two months to make that idea a reality. Win-win-win!
Enjoy These Farm Fresh Recipes
And so, with great pleasure, the Co-op Farmer’s Market, I, Prof Wargo, and our students, are excited to invite you to read the newly published student Farm Fresh Recipes, on the Blog > Farm Fresh Recipes page of the market’s website. Read them all, pick your favorite recipe or two, then shop the farmer’s market in Scranton to purchase your produce, and try the recipes yourself!
- Cabbage Rolls
- Greek Potato Wedges
- Baked Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
- Fresh Salsa Recipe
- Caprese Salad Recipe
- Tomato Soup Recipe
- Butternut Squash Risotto
- Cucumber Tomato Salad
In addition to sharing these healthy, produce-rich recipes, the Nutrition & Dietetics students also had the opportunity to visit the the Scranton Co-Op Farmer’s Market on Oct 28, 2026 to give market visitors a Live cooking demonstration featuring farm fresh ingredients.
Growing Together, Looking Ahead
Now that the Fall 2026 Recipe Project has concluded for the semester, Prof Wargo and I have had time to reflect on the process and outcomes of this partnership. We’ve learned a thing or two about recipe copyright issues related to images and previously published recipes, and have some great ideas to help us improve this process going forward.
I’d personally like to thank Marylee Shirg of Jim’s Farm Produce for helping to coordinate this Fall 2026 project, along with my graphic design students in the Art Department, Prof. Emily Wargo, and her students in the Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Science Department.
Next semester, I’m aiming to keep the recipe-ball rolling with further collaborations between faculty and students in the Art and Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Science departments and the Co-Op Farmer’s Market. Keep your eyes on the Art Department blog, WhereCreativityWorks.com, and Co-op Farmer’s Market blog for updates about Farm Fresh Recipes and other farmer’s market news!
Warmly,
Prof Sue Jenkins
Art Department
Marywood University
P.S. Come study art with us at Marywood! We love learners of all ages, returning students, career shifters, retirees, and everyone in between. Reach out to Marywood Admissions to schedule your campus tour.