Tag Archives: Ashton Rask

OSU Extension intern empowers families with cooking resources

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Hi all, Ashton Rask again. For my final blog post, and my final project of my internship,
Savannah and I helped our Education Program Assistant build bags filled with cooking utensils,
cookbooks and other informational materials. These bags will be distributed to our local
community partners for our community members to use and enjoy. This will help equip our
community with the tools they need to create a healthy and balanced meal. Attached is a photo
of Savannah Barron and me in our Columbia County Office, prepping the bags (photo to come). We created an
assembly line to get as many of the bags done as we could so we can distribute them to our
community partners.

Over the course of my internship, I have had the opportunity to help within our community
programming, which is something I have really enjoyed. Specifically, our cooking classes at the
Food Bank that are hosted alongside WIC classes. These classes are made up of youth usually
under the age of 6. We have had some of these kids attend multiple classes this summer, and
it’s been a joy to see them repeatedly. It has given me the opportunity to give back to my
community, help educate my community about the resources we have available, and share
new, healthy recipes featuring foods that are easily accessible.

Working with Kate, our education program assistant, has been a blast. She’s extremely
knowledgeable and creates a wonderful environment for those involved. The kids we had the
opportunity to work with are so much fun and are always excited about the recipes Kate brings
to the table. Our hope is that these prefilled bags help kids and families have the tools they
need to make meals more accessible.

OSU Extension intern enhances demo garden with educational signage

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Hi, my name is Ashton Rask, and I am excited to introduce myself and be a part of the
OSU Extension services internship program. I am located in Columbia County, where I currently
reside. Though I am originally from the central valley of California, where agricultural roots run
deep. I have always been involved in some form of agriculture; I am a huge advocate for
agricultural education and take pride in being a part of a larger community. I was an active
member of 4H and FFA throughout my youth. I am entering my last year at Colorado State
University online, finishing my bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business. From here I hope to
continue to be an advocate for agriculture and move forward in a career that is rewarding and
impactful.

Garden sign displaying the Luffa in Columbia County’s demo garden. Photo: Ashton Rask

As I enter the 6th week of my internship here at OSU Extension, I have experienced a
number of exciting events. Including WIC/Snap-ED programming, Master Gardener events
along with viewing and lending a hand in our community & demo gardens. One of my recent
projects has been creating new signs to label our demo garden beds. This is a project that we
wanted to get done before our county fair, which is a goal we accomplished. I also had the
opportunity to sneak out of the office and get my hands dirty doing some weeding in our
experimental gardens located at the demo garden here in St. Helens.

I saw a need for signs to be made and placed in our demo garden. With the help of both
our agriculture Extension agent, Janhvi Pandey and A few of our master gardeners, who were
so kind to help me through this process, I was able to head out to the demo garden and learn
about all the things we are growing and showcasing. Our demo garden is flourishing, so having
proper signage to address people’s questions and celebrate the hard work of our community
members was important! Our demo garden has been a joy to work in over the past few weeks.
Watching all our unique plants and garden beds bloom and start to produce fruit has been
exciting. I am fortunate enough to be a small piece of this bigger puzzle and cannot wait to see
how our community members react throughout the fair and its showcasing.

These signs highlighted companion planting, our pollinator garden and our three sisters’
garden bed. Along with a really unique plant that has been introduced this year by a master
gardener, the Lofa plant! The Luffa plant is edible, but we often see it used in its sponge form!
Some signs needed to be created from scratch, whereas some just needed an updated look. I
spent about a week and a half creating these, printing and laminating them to help limit some
of the exposure from the elements, to hopefully make them last a while. From there I was able
to go out and place them on each plaque.