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Around Campus

Growing food and building community

Using volunteer efforts, the Carolina Campus Community garden offers fruits and vegetables to some Carolina employees and educational opportunities for faculty, students, staff and the local community.

Claire Lorch checks peppers in the Community Garden.
Claire Lorch checks peppers in the Community Garden at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photo by Dan Sears, Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

Great things happen when community members support each other. For proof, look no further than the end of Wilson Street, right off of UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.

That’s the location of the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s Carolina Campus Community Garden, a project that began in March 2010. Using volunteer efforts, the garden offers access to fresh, sustainably grown fruits and vegetables to some Carolina employees and educational opportunities for faculty, students, staff and the local community.

The garden workdays are from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 3-5 p.m. on Sundays. Volunteer activities range from building garden structures and clearing plant beds to planting, harvesting, weeding and watering. Anyone is welcome, including students, faculty, staff and community members, regardless of previous gardening experience.

On a recent weekday, for example, several volunteers harvested tomatoes, sprayed plants and taste-tested the ripeness of figs.

“I think the University recognizes the benefit to the community of having this beautiful garden within walking distance that can serve both to provide fresh vegetables for people and as a learning laboratory for UNC courses and projects,” said Claire Lorch, the garden’s education coordinator. “It’s a place where the University gives back to the folks that do a very important job keeping our learning environments clean.

The campus community garden also relies on organic techniques, like composting. Food scraps are collected from residence halls and Carolina Dining Services, and volunteers also pick up scraps from a local grocery store. Those scraps are then chopped, turned, sifted and used to fertilize the garden’s crops.

“It makes sense to incorporate as many sustainable and organic practices as possible,” Lorch said. “We also want others to see that it can be done and done successfully.”

Harvested produce is then distributed, primarily to housekeeping staff, twice a week. Employees pick up fruits and vegetables during their shifts and usually help unpack and set up before the produce distribution.

Since its start, the garden has produced more than 17,000 pounds of produce and saved families nearly $86,000. Lorch said she hopes that the garden will continue to both teach and support the community for years to come. The community garden partners with the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the UNC Employee Forum.