{"id":13142,"date":"2023-08-17T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=13142"},"modified":"2023-08-17T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T17:30:51","slug":"helping-the-garden-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2023\/08\/17\/helping-the-garden-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping the Garden Grow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Colgate\u2019s Community Garden recently received a total of $110,000 to help fund the addition of a greenhouse and an electric golf cart to transport compost materials. The greenhouse will be open before the 2024 growing season, and will support the community garden as both an educational space and source of food for campus and local families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A $25,000 sustainability grant from the Fred L. Emerson Foundation; a $5,000 grant from NYSAR3, a state advisory organization that promotes recycling; and an $80,000 pledge from Mark and Julia Schonfeld P\u201925, P\u201927 will support the garden\u2019s composting efforts and allow the garden to extend its growing season by several months, enabling more time for faculty and student research and increasing the amount of produce to be donated to the Hamilton Food Cupboard. The 18 foot x 20 foot metal frame greenhouse will be located on a concrete pad on the site and will feature potting benches, growing tables, and the capacity for a future hydroponics system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in June\n2010 with seed money from the Class of 2010, the garden has served as a social,\nresearch, educational, and food production space, supervised by Garden Manager\nBeth Roy and tended by student interns, Colgate faculty and staff members, and\nvolunteers from campus and the community. The garden features an apiary,\nproduction crops, and 12 raised garden beds for use by community members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia\nSchonfeld, mother to Natalie \u201925 and Audrey, an incoming first-year student, is\na board member for Groundwork Hudson Valley, an organization focused on\npromoting sustainable environmental change in urban communities. Schonfeld was\nimpressed by the Community Garden and Roy\u2019s efforts to promote both student and\ncommunity involvement. The Schonfelds were introduced to John Pumilio, director\nof sustainability, and learned more about the University\u2019s sustainability\ngoals, a pillar of the Third-Century\nPlan. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nknew we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to Colgate\u2019s sustainability\nmission,\u201d says Julia. \u201cThe more we heard more about the Community Garden, the\nbetter we understood its growing role in nurturing and educating the students\nas well as members of the surrounding community. With all its potential, the\ngarden struck us as a perfect opportunity to support an important and valuable\nresource.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to\nserving the Hamilton community through its produce, the garden also provides a\npowerful teaching tool. Students in Professor Chris Henke\u2019s ENST 390 course\nhave partnered with the Community Garden to develop new connections with\nregional Indigenous communities by planting a Three Sisters Garden last summer\nand hosting events where students and community members can learn more about\nIndigenous methods of food production and traditional intersections of culture,\nspirituality, and agriculture. The garden will continue to host these events in\nthe coming years and serve as a site for growing and saving Indigenous seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The greenhouse\nproject aligns with Colgate\u2019s Third-Century\nPlan<\/em>, which prioritizes a sustainable and carbon-neutral campus by\nsupporting the University\u2019s commitment to more sustainable food sourcing. Since\n2010, the Colgate Community Garden has served as an educational space that\nprovides student interns and campus community members firsthand opportunities\nto learn about gardening and small-scale agriculture. Its mission is to raise\nawareness of local food production, sustainable agriculture, and the food cycle\non campus and in our community; increase local food options available to\nstudents through Dining Services; and to serve as a place of interaction and\npositive engagement that further strengthens the bond within the Colgate\ncommunity and our Hamilton neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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