Campus gardens are the solution to increasing local food supplies


(Julianna Pantoja | Daily Trojan)

USC’s 2020 Sustainability Plan set admirable campus goals: reduce greenhouse gases by 20% per square foot and achieve 75% waste diversion levels. Another key aspect is encouraging interdepartmental cooperation. One goal this year was to have 75% of USC schools and offices engaged in responsible purchasing practices. Within this category is an interesting subset: the goal to purchase 20% of food from sustainable sources. In citing examples of sustainable food practices, the University states its hope of buying locally grown, farm-fresh food that upholds nutritional standards. 

USC has scaled up efforts to embrace the use of locally grown food products through events like the weekly Trojans Farmers Market at McCarthy Quad, but to develop truly local, versatile food sources, the University should consider opening a free, on-campus community garden. 

USC does host a few gardens on or near campus. There’s the experimental aeroponics garden across the street at USC Hotel, used by chefs at Morton Fig, McKay’s and The Lab, who use the garden’s fresh produce in seasonal dishes. There’s also the tiny garden nestled near the Parkside dining hall, accessible to members of the Garden Club. Shrine Place has an urban garden open to students, faculty, staff and community members in the yard of a USC-owned house. 

Despite the existence of these three gardens and the myriad positive resources they offer, there remains a need for a central, community-based garden for all students. A centralized garden could serve a wide array of purposes, beyond simply acting as teaching tools in academic settings. From directly supplementing food for dining halls and campus events to providing spaces of gratitude, connection and purpose, gardens have much to offer. 

In Washington, D.C., students at George Washington University have reaped all these benefits. Their small garden is like another world, just one half-block of space within their urban campus. Among their rows of vegetables, student volunteers find comfort in working together to support the garden. Students come to the garden to establish a connection with the land but end up learning far more about urban farming and each other. Some even find a community of relationships that lasts all four years.

Even more impressive, none of the crops go to waste. Some are used to supplement on-campus dining halls and farmers markets, but the majority are donated to local food banks or organizations that support D.C.’s homeless population. Every week, students harvest pounds of produce that is delivered directly to groups such as Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit that feeds around 300 people experiencing homelessness a day. The garden is also used to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for the campus food pantry. 

Like GWU, USC is an urban campus with many similar programs in place. Opening a garden is the logical next step in contributing food to the surrounding community. The University has already ramped up efforts to address community shortages during the coronavirus outbreak. In an email last week, President Carol Folt described USC programs that are currently donating fresh food and produce to local food drives and, most notably, serving 400 meals a day to students in the Head Start Program. 

In the future, a garden could continue these initiatives through similar donations to food banks and regional organizations. It could also add fresh produce to the Trojan Food Bank, a service open to any student experiencing food scarcity. With an accessible on-campus location, students and dining halls could even provide the compost. Increasing the University’s local food supply will definitely require more than the gardens USC currently has.

Studies show that campus gardens offer more advantages than just the crops they yield. The cooperation and synergy inherent in caring for a garden is the ideal conduit for interdepartmental collaboration, one of the goals in USC’s 2020 Sustainability Plan. Opening a communal space encourages students from all departments to have a vested interest in where their food comes from. 

Living in a city as large as Los Angeles, it is easy to forget that students have control — often more than what is thought — over how and where their food comes from. This matters in times of climate instability. A garden is a great opportunity to care for a small piece of land, learn about its microcosm and understand the power of urban and local farming.  

GWU is only one of the hundreds of universities around the country that have added campus gardens in the last few years. Across town, UCLA’s Jane B. Semel HCI Community Garden boasts 31 beds used for gardening workshops by student organizations and faculty. The garden aims to address food scarcity on campus, as well as promote community building and food system education.  

With a growing need to look locally for our food supply, it’s time to take a note from campus gardens around the country: Let’s grow together.