Sustainable Organic Community Garden on Campus!
the problem:
globally: childhood obesity, lack of intergenerational community, disintegration of local history and knowledge, poor application of land management, poor eating habits.
locally: every kindness shown to one person as an action that benefits the whole world. Kindness is expressed through compassion and cooperation - taking action to experience life through others' eyes. Expanding educational opportunities, supporting people when they are under stress, celebrating others' success, growing mutually. I am taking actions to help solve global warming, help solve our dependence on oil, and help solve our ignorance of the larger contexts in which we live.
vital stats:
people impacted:
28,000people involved:
40why it's important:
We are all one big, tight-knit family on this planet, literally, and it's about time we start acting like it. I co-founded and am president of Students for Sustainability, a student organization that focuses on action in the realm of service. We are starting an organic community garden on campus to create more active and aware lifestyles for everyone and create a community where none exists before. We will re-introduce people to food. Healthy, organic food will be served to the children in the Child Development Center next door to the garden site. Students for sustainability will manage volunteers to teach and facilitate children field trips to the arboretum and the garden. People will learn about the industrial food system, alternatives, work with their hands, and taste the fruits of their labor.
the plan of action:
New College (an Interdisciplinary Program at UA) students collected university-wide student interest with an online survey and analyzed the results, which we presented to administration and facility management. Faculty members jumped on board to help us understand the complicated University bureaucracy, and we gathered student momentum with interest meetings and table displays. We wrote several drafts of the proposal and finally got an acre of land on campus approved and included in the Master Plan. Our efforts stimulated the administration to create a Committee on the Environment, which we hope will be the first step towards creating an Office of Sustainability - a back-bone for all initiatives and projects in accordance with sustainability goals on campus. We created the student group Students for Sustainability in order to petition for funding from the Student Government Association Financial Affairs Committee and the student reserve fund. We are now bringing speakers to the university to help educate members of the community on the interrelatedness of issues like food, policy, environment, energy, global warming, trade, and sustainability. So far, hundreds of students have expressed support for the initiative. We hope to work with the on campus dining halls and get the university to transition consumption of food to 20% organic and local produce by 2020. The on-campus garden will also be a work of art, with multiple student-created sculptures on display and a stage for musical performances. It will be a merging of nature, culture, and learning in harmony. MANY people will directly and indirectly benefit from this initiative. The university alone has 28,000 people, and the child development center serves over 160 special needs children.
how you can get involved:
Others can help by volunteering to maintain the garden, composting, volunteering to teach children, collaborating with money for programming, coming up with creative ideas to implement better management systems, spreading the word, buying local organic foods!
Comments
I think that this is a really good project and my mom works on campus and im 13 years old but i would love to help out in any way i can. :-)