University of Missouri Columbia Columbia, Missouri Farming/Garden

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1 University of Missouri Columbia Columbia, Missouri Farming/Garden SCHOOL University of Missouri Columbia, Public, 4-year, 33,805 students, Columbia, Missouri. ABSTRACT Over the past two years, the Mizzou Community Gardens Committee has been trying to develop a learning garden on the main campus to reconnect the students of all ages to nature and their food. We have formed strong interdisciplinary relationships between three colleges on campus (College of Education, College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, and The College of Human Environmental Sciences) and the USDA. We are now in the second phase of a three phase learning garden program that includes a small raised bed garden (Phase I) and the People s Garden (Phase II). The campus ecology fellowship provided financial support for the raised bed garden that allowed the program to get started while waiting for final approval for the larger program. The People s Garden is led by the USDA Agricultural Research Station on Campus. Lab Technicians from the USDA helped undergraduates and children in the University of Missouri s Child Development Lab to plant, maintain, and harvest from this garden. The third and final phase of the garden has been designed, and we are currently fundraising for the $50,000 construction and finding sustained support for graduate assistantships. So far, 88 children ages 8 months to 5 years old, more than 20 teachers, and 12 campus leaders have been actively involved in this garden project. GOALS AND OUTCOMES Goals Below are the initial program goals for the campus ecology project: 1. Increase opportunities for Mizzou community members to grow their own food on campus 2. Increase student and community access to locally grown and ethically produced foods 3. Increase the square footage of NWF certified wildlife habitat on the MU campus Below are the long term goals for the Campus Garden Project: 1. Reduce the use of chemicals, fertilizers, and waste production from MU landscaping and dining services 2. Increase connections between local farmers, schools, and the MU community to support local food systems 3. Increase the number of locally sourced foods served in MU dining services 4. Develop and refine curriculum for learning gardening development and planning Accomplishments and Outcomes 1. Increase opportunities for Mizzou community members to grow their own food on campus Initially, the group of organizers thought that this goal would be easiest to achieve through a traditional community garden format with individually managed plots. However, we found out early on the administrative leadership from campus facilities and landscape services were

2 skeptical of the idea that undergraduates and student organizations could properly manage plots on the main campus. The entire campus is carefully manicured and is itself a botanic garden; showcasing native and tropical plant species that grow well in the region. During several planning meanings, administrators emphasized that the main campus was not the place for individual vegetable garden plots. The Mizzou Community Garden committee was passionate about finding a place on the main campus to grow vegetables, so we sought out campus faculty that would be interested in collaborating in this learning garden project. Fortunately, the director of the Child Development Lab in the Human Development and Family Studies Department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences was very excited about having a garden as part of the early childhood education program for children and future teachers. Also, faculty members from Agriculture Education in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources and Learning Teaching and Curriculum endorsed the campus garden project and allowed the group to finally gain access to managing a small piece of the main campus at Mizzou. 2. Increase student and community access to locally grown and ethically produced foods On June 13, 2012, volunteers and children from the child development lab harvested 17 bunches of Lacinato Kale from the campus garden and prepared it to be served in the lunch for the 100 children and staff. This dark leafy green was grown without pesticides and harvested literally footsteps away from the kitchen. Food from the garden will continue to be integrated into the education program in MU s Child Development Lab and will also be donated to the newly formed Tiger Food Pantry on campus and local food banks. The Tiger Pantry is a student created initiative to offer access to healthy foods for Mizzou students that might otherwise not know where their next meal would come from. One of the Mizzou Community Garden Committee members, Kat Seal, is a leader in this project. Before the Mizzou Community Garden project, these opportunities in agriculture and the community would not have been possible. 3. Increase the square footage of NWF certified wildlife habitat on the MU campus This certification process is yet to be complete. The guidelines for certifying a campus is a little bit vague, but it seems as if the entire campus would qualify as a wildlife habitat. We will continue to pursue certification pending extension of the fellowship contract. 2

3 4. Impacts to wildlife and natural environment on campus The Mizzou Community Garden Committee gained access to a small piece of the campus that was otherwise untended and transformed it into a raised garden area for children to gain experiences growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers. This area will continue to be managed by student volunteers and hopefully overseen by a graduate assistantship within the MU Child Development Lab. This provides opportunities for community members to participate in managing resources like soil, water, and biodiversity on campus. The more traditional MU Botanic Garden offers nature that can be observed as an object of beauty, but the Mizzou Community Garden project and the learning garden is a way for community member to interact with nature. Challenges and Responses The biggest challenge in this project was navigating the bureaucracy and power structures on my large, Land-Grant University. We discovered that every piece of campus is fought over and is part of continuing development plans. The garden had 6 proposed locations that were eliminated for a variety of reasons (some reasonable and some not so reasonable). The scope of project planning on this University extends well beyond the 4 year tenure of normal students at this University. The campus organizers had to address the administrative concern of a community garden on campus by integrating the garden into a campus departmental program (e.g. The Child Development Lab). In doing this, many of the undergraduates were frustrated with the pace of the project approval and the skepticism from campus administrators that they encountered at innumerable meetings. The philosophy of the organizer was to plan for long-term success for the program, but some of the short-term goals were not met because of the extended timeline we were forced to adopt. We learned that most campus employees are spread very thin and it is hard for them to prioritize a project without having significant say in the project vision and mission. However, when multiple stakeholders come together, it is difficult to find a cohesive vision. In the future, we will do a better job of finding common grounds between the organizers so we can make progress towards our shared goals. Campus Climate Action: Your School s Carbon Footprint Initially, this project was positioned as a way to increase production of food to reduce the distance that food travels to get to our plate. We have since questioned some of the validity in the assumption that growing food for in our community garden has been legitimate way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, economies of scale and efficient distribution systems might make it more GHG thrifty to have large amounts of food efficiently shipped across the country. With that said, though, there need to be diverse farm operations to create a resilient local food system that is less reliant on a cheap fossil fuel society. We understand that one of the primary goals of this campus ecology fellowship was to tackle the issue of climate change using some quantitative measure. However, we feel that it is dangerous to place too much value on quantifying GHG emissions in pursuit of a more sustainable society. 3

4 What the garden project has done, though, has provided a chance for community members to embed them in a place and experience nature in an otherwise urban setting. These experiences outdoors for children and adults provide opportunities to contemplate the ways in which humans impact earth s natural resources in our postmodern industrialized society. Commentary and Reflection Christopher learned that at his institution, projects can only be sustainable of they are created using the human and natural resources available on campus. In other words, the community garden project had to be created with the community, not just in the community. It is easy to start projects and install gardens, but the day-to-day maintenance and the long-term care of the project is also important. Trying to make change on a large campus is difficult because there are a number of hardworking individuals who are already spread thin and adding another responsibility is generally unfavorable. However, Christopher found that a lot of success is just having the perseverance to continue to show up and advocate for learning experiences that connect people to nature and their food. The Mizzou Community Garden Project has been an important experience in sustainable development and garden education. This project has drastically impacted my research interests in Christopher s PhD program. He realizes that creating a learning garden on campus is largely about navigating the power structures on campus. As he continues to study learning gardens in formal and informal contexts, he is interested in understanding the story of how those projects were started. Christopher is currently writing a manuscript that explains the context and shared culture of the learning garden organizers. This project has been designed to last well beyond Christopher s tenure at the University of Missouri. As of now, he is not sure that the program would continue if he stopped showing up, but he hopes that in two more years there will be sufficient capacity and tradition to keep the garden growing. ENGAGEMENT AND SUPPORT Leaders and Supporters The Mizzou Community Garden Committee was formed to help secure a location for community members to garden on campus. This group included Steve Burdic, the Director of the Sustainability Office, Janet Moreland, assistant director of the Sustainability Office, Ben Datema, Director of Student Sustainability, Mike Burden, the volunteer coordinator for student sustainability, Monica Everett, the founder of the Mizzou Food Coalition, Kat Seal, the President of Sustain Mizzou, Dakota Beveridge, the President of Tigers for Community Agriculture, Jessie Bradley, the Director of the MU Child Development Lab, Brigitte Zettl, a graduate student in Agriculture Education, Jim Elder, a Lab Technician from the USDA, Nancy Schultz, the Senior Development Officer for the College of Human Environmental Sciences, and myself. Many others over the past year and half have been played various support roles throughout. The group was an informal arrangement and decisions were made largely based on consensus. However, 4

5 when we were looking for a location for the garden the Campus Facilities and Landscape Services Directors held the decision making power. The group met every Friday while classes were in session. Over time, after it became clear that administrators were not excited about having a solely student run community garden on the main campus, several of the undergraduates were not able to dedicate time to the project, and leaders from the Child Development Lab and the USDA played more of an integral role. Funding and Resources So far, we have spent $ of the $1000 fellowship, however, the project has cost much more than this amount. The Child Development Lab employs me as a classroom teacher, garden educator, and garden. Christopher spends about 10 hours a week coordinating lessons for the garden and maintaining the two garden projects currently underway. In the future, the goal is to have a similar half time graduate assistantship paid for by the College of Human Environmental Sciences. We have also designed the third phase of the learning garden project, which will add on to the two existing phases. The price tag for this project is $46,000 and we are currently soliciting donors. We have already received $5,000 from the MU Nutritional Center for Health, and $2,000 from a private donor. Raising these funds will be critical to building these universally accessible experiences in nature and with food for Mizzou Community Members. As mentioned before, securing space on campus was a difficult endeavor for this project and we were led down numerous paths that ended up with building administrators upset about plans to build a garden where there were proposed expansions in ten years. We also encountered pollution concerns like lead soils and other unknown contaminants that eliminated potential sites. Through perseverance, primarily, we were able to find a small piece of the main campus that fit the groups needs. Education and Community Outreach We regularly engage the campus community in education programming in the garden. Now, children from the Child Development Lab (Ages 8 months-5 years) visit the garden 4 days a week. Christopher leads lessons with representatives from the USDA and undergraduate volunteers. There is a regular work day in the garden and we just hired a teenager from the community to help maintain the garden. Christopher hosted a teacher development program on campus and we used the garden project to demonstrate how gardening (composting) could be used to teach science lessons. Local farmers from the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture have helped construct the garden and also teach lessons in the garden. They plan to continue to work with the campus garden and we are currently stakeholders on one a pending grant applications with the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Hopefully, the garden will continue to be a community gathering and learning space. Also, the local newspaper wrote an article about our efforts and the future plans for the garden. (See Article: 5

6 campus-learning/) Overall, we have been committed to working with the community to connect them to the learning garden project. National Wildlife Federation s Campus Ecology Program The Campus Ecology program provided some initial funds to get our garden project started on campus. Having these funds meant that we were able to afford high quality soil and lumber which will help our garden grow healthy for several years. Being able to demonstrate success with this smaller garden will allow leverage to create a larger garden. The program provided essential seed money for the Mizzou Community Garden Committee. The following Campus Ecology resources were used: Consultation with staff, web conferences and fellowships. The following Fellowship resources were valuable to this project: NWF Name Recognition, participation in NWF Annual Meeting. As described before, having the distinction of being a NWF Fellow validated some of our efforts to gain access to space on campus. Participating in the annual NWF meeting allowed me to network with other like-minded leaders and also to understand more about the goals and vision of NWF. It was important to know more about the organization that Christopher was representing in his work. CONTACT INFORMATION Contacts Jessie Bradley, Director of MU Child Development Lab, bradleyjl@missouri.edu Kat Seal, Sustainability Officer of Tiger Pantry, krsmpd@mail.missouri.edu (May, 2014) Steve Burdic, Directory of MU Sustainability Office, burdics@missouri.edu Case Study Submitted by: Christopher Murakami, nd year PhD Student Learning Teaching and Curriculum Science Education cdmurakami@gmail.com MORE ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL Campus Sustainability History The selection below is from the University of Missouri Sustainability office website: On March 18, 2010, the University of Missouri officially adopted its current Sustainability Policy Statement: The University of Missouri embraces its role in providing a healthy and safe learning environment for its students, staff, and faculty. Consistent with MU's mission and values, we are committed to leadership in demonstrating local and global environmental stewardship. MU recognizes the increasing need for policies and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and has signed the American College and University President's Climate Commitment with the goal of making the MU campus carbon neutral. Further, MU has undertaken an ambitious program of environmental sustainability that includes, but is not limited to, the following actions: 6

7 Incorporating sustainability and social responsibility in the teaching curriculum; researching, testing, and implementing new sustainability initiatives; and disseminating effective sustainability practices. Taking proactive steps to preserve, protect, and renew natural resources, both locally and globally, thereby minimizing anthropogenic harm to the environment. Identifying and utilizing environmentally friendly energy resources and employing a dynamic and proactive energy-conservation program. Minimizing waste generation, recovering recyclable materials and safely managing necessary waste disposal. Observing sustainable best practices in campus construction and procurement. Researching and promoting sustainable practices in the growth, management, and transportation of food. Promoting clean, efficient, and healthy transportation for all students, staff, and faculty. Each unit or department within the University is expected to evaluate current policies and practices on a regular basis with the goal of adopting and improving environmentally sustainable practices. The campus dashboard project is the most noteworthy effort to reduce energy usage and GHG emissions. The dashboard allows dorms to track energy consumption and compete with each other on campus and to compete with different campuses. This project is led by Ben Datema and is a collaboration with student sustainability and Residential Life. Image Credit: Christopher Murakami 7