ISU Community Garden
The ISU community garden is an opportunity for not only students and staff, but members of the Terre Haute community to help fight hunger.
The garden is located on 11th Street which is about a mile off of campus. Patti Weaver founded the ISU community garden. She noted it was formed in 2007 relating through a community involvement initiative, and the first public meeting was held in January 2008. Weaver attended that meeting and started the committee that is formed today. She is a Master Gardener with the Wabash Valley Master Gardeners Association and the hours she works go towards her certification as a master gardener.
There are many great aspects of the garden but the biggest concern is the growing season. Right now the only time members can grow is April through October. This means that for the majority of the season students are not around ISU.
“There are more adults than students because it is tough for students to garden there because they are gone thru the summer,” said Weaver. “But we often have about 8 to 10 each year and many ISU employees that do garden there.”
However not just students and employees can benefit from this garden.
“The balance (of the garden) is folks that live in and around Terre Haute,” said Weaver. “The age of folks that benefit from the produce that is grown go from 6 months to 87 years old.”
According to the community garden website, Indiana State University has provided gardeners with land to plant 10 foot by 10 foot, 10 foot by 15 foot or 20 foot by 20 foot plots free of charge.
“Last year there were about 80 signed up gardeners, but when you count in the family and friends involved then there were about 150 folks who ate fresh veggies that was grown locally,” said Weaver.
Turning people down is not what the garden is about. Since the garden has started it has grown tremendously along with planters and those who are working to help maintain it. Every year a goal is to add more gardeners and expand.
“To date the area is 2 city blocks equally about 5 acres,” said Weaver. “The next expansion will be the next city block to the east of the garden which is located on 12th street.”
There are a few rules and regulations that the gardeners must follow. Some of the rules include keeping their plots kept up, planting only annuals, and they cannot use pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. The biggest is they must donate a portion of the produce raised to the food pantry of their choice.
“Donations are all based on the honor system,” said Weaver. “It would be very tough to track the amount of produce that is donated and to where.”
Weaver suggested that it might be a great project for an ISU class to take on as an actual project. This could be done within the science department and could also go towards community service hours. As of right now there are only two people that are part of the working staff.
This year Weaver thinks there will be around 100 people who have assigned plots, and around 180 total people receiving fresh produce.
For more information on the ISU community garden, visit the ISU website.
