Getting Involved in Galesburg

Knox and Galesburg share a co-commitment to strengthening our rich Midwestern heritage and encouraging arts and culture, intellectual pursuits, and sustainability.

Sustainability is a key component of Galesburg's economic development program.

• The Sustainable Business Center is an innovative business incubator designed to support and encourage green, innovative companies to grow and succeed. It offers an array of business support resources and services both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. The Sustainable Business Center also houses a commercial kitchen available to help fledgling catering and retail food businesses. The kitchen allows for food preparation, packaging and distribution of finished products in an environmentally safe facility.
• The Galesburg Farmer's Market operates every week in downtown Galesburg, May-September, with a variety of local, fresh offerings. In addition, many families take advantage of local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) to share the bounty of small central Illinois farms.
• Knox College supports local farming by purchasing some food items from local sources. In the 2013-14 academic year, Knox Dining Services purchased $35,195 worth of local food.
• Knox students grow their own fruits and vegetables in the Urban Agriculture class developed by Peter Schwartzman (professor of environmental studies at Knox). Students spend part of their time in classroom lecture, but they also get hands-on experience planting and tending crops. Students rotate duties, such as seeding, watering, weeding, and serving as agricultural historian. The agricultural historian's work contributes to a group research project that examines the links among farming, Knox College, and the Galesburg area, providing context to the students' farming.
• Students, faculty & staff are enthusiastic volunteers in the Galesburg area.
• Knox students, faculty and staff worked with other local citizens to develop the Knox Prairie Community Kitchen - which offers a free community meal to any and all. Volunteers prepare and staff a dinner twice each month. Local organizations and contributions help fund the purchase of food.
  
  

Through the Mark and Jeannette Klein Center for Community Service, students contributed more than 29,000 hours of volunteer effort to Galesburg last year.

• Best Buddies International matches students with an adult with disabilities so that they may form a friendship. The opportunity includes both group and individual activities.
• At the Community Preschool, students volunteer to serve as teachers' aides in a preschool classroom.
• Galesburg Enrichment Mentors (GEM) provides one-on-one tutoring for local students in grades 6-8.
• Knox County Boys and Girls Club provides an opportunity for students to serve as mentors to children ages 7-16 in an afterschool program.
• Reading Buddies Program with Nielson School matches Knox students with a second or third grade student for a term or a year-long commitment to help the youngster learn to read.