UMBC Community Garden

Sunday, August 8, 2010

New Student Organization!

This fall, the Community Garden Proposal Team is proud to announce we have formed a new Student Organization! Under the guidance of two fantastic professors, food systems expert Dr. Warren Belasco(American Studies) and agriculture expert Dr. Laura Lewis(Geography & Environmental Systems) and armed with a $10,000 grant from SGA's ImProve It program, we are delighted to be able to continue our efforts to establish this sustainable and rewarding project on campus.

We have a great deal of gratitude to the numerous departments, professors, programs, administrators, student organizations, and students that have assisted us along the way. Needing all the help we can get to involve everyone in the process of creating our community garden, we encourage anyone with interest in assisting with construction, plantings, maintaining a plot, donations, or using the space to conduct research or workshops or any advice, questions or support to contact us at umbcgarden@gmail.com

Please also contact us to sign up to join the student organization and receive occasional updates. We looking forward to creating and continuing partnerships throughout the community! Please sign up to volunteer with us and help us look for ways our groups can work together to provide productive use to the energy, time and space available on campus to cultivate connections between each other and the nutritious produce that will provide for our well-being!

Thanks to everyone for all the support so far!
Community Garden Team

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Vote for us to get a Grant!

Hey everyone! While you know we were runners up in improve it contest, this hasn't deterred us in the least in trying to get a community garden on campus and fresh, home-grown food into our dining hall.

Recently we entered into a grant contest sponsored by Nature's Path that will give us a chance to win a 50,000 grant to start our very own garden.

We would appreciate it so much if you could quickly take a second to vote for us, and show your support!
http://www.justmeans.com/contestidea?ideaid=NzAz
Thanks so much! We're counting on your votes!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

What’s our idea?

We propose a community garden to be run exclusively by students and volunteers, helping to provide cohesion amongst different groups of students while improving the health and quality of the campus. The garden will provide many opportunities for student organizations, professors, researchers, and other programs to learn and share by cultivating their own plot of land.
A community garden has the power to address many campus issues and needs, such as sustainability, community, aesthetics, and beautification. Our garden will promote health and well-being, while providing a place for relaxation, exercise, learning, and growing. Anyone can come and socialize in a fun, natural way, to be physically active and use leisure time productively.

The garden will also aide in fostering a new equitable forum for interactions between staff, students, researchers, professors, administrators, and anyone else in and around the UMBC community. The garden’s existence will establish a connection for UMBC between nature and food; this opportunity will give UMBC a chance to actively participate in improving its environment, nutrition, and overall health.

Voting for the Grant Proposal!

There are two ways that students can vote, one is through the blackboard community 2010 Undergraduate Voting after you log in - every undergraduate should be able to see this, as well as the banner on the blackboard page. The links are below as well.
To vote, follow the link matching the first letter of your last name alphabetically:
Last name starts with A - D
Last name starts with E - K
Last name starts with L - R
Last name starts with S - Z

The other method and way of gathering more information is through the Prove It! website, www.umbc.edu/proveit
where there are links to each finalist's video and a summary of their idea, and a link to the full proposal.