UI Gardeners launch fundraising website for central campus garden

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November 15, 2019
Student Garden

Access to fresh, healthy food is tough for college students. But, the University of Iowa Student Gardeners hope to make it just a little easier by establishing a student garden on campus.

The group is $15,000 away from their goal of $90,000 to construct the first phase of a garden beside North Hall in the heart of the UI campus. The current student garden is far from central campus, located near the Hawkeye Commuter Lot on Hawkeye Park Road. The new garden would bring free, organic, student-grown food right to the campus community.

“The more people recognize what we’re doing and understand where we’re coming from and why we want to do this, I think the easier it’ll be to get the project done in a timely manner,” said UI Gardeners co-president Derek Tate. 

Donations for the new garden can now be accepted on GoldRush. But another way to help out is simply by volunteering or even joining the organization. The group goes out to the current garden every week to weed, collect produce, and maintain the garden. Volunteers can even go home with a handful of fresh food.

“It’s a very fun experience to go outside and work in the garden and work with food that’s been grown by students,” Tate said. “It hasn’t been grown in a farm somewhere, in a monoculture. It’s the most down-to-earth, homegrown, locally produced plate of food you can get.”

Having a home in central campus is vital to make sure students can access all the opportunities the garden provides. The current garden, although reachable by Cambus, is far away, lacks bathrooms and running water, and may be just too inconvenient for some students. 

“It’s almost discouraging to students to go in there to a place they’re unfamiliar with and take “food, which is what it’s meant to do, but since it’s so detached it may be off putting to students,” Tate said.

A more accessible garden would mean more connections with students to promote not only gardening, but key ideas of sustainability. 

“Whether it be a lack of waste, a lack of food waste, being more open-minded about where your food comes from and where it goes after you're done eating it is really important and central to our organization.”