Sustainable Colgate
Gardening for the future
By Kiera Crowley ’13
The first seeds of an idea for a garden at Colgate were planted in February 2001, when Heather Schoen ’02 did an Environmental Studies project that described the successes of student-run gardens at 12 other colleges and universities, and outlined a plan to start a student organization called “Green Thumbs,” focused on promoting local, sustainable agriculture at Colgate. According to Schoen’s vision, the initial goal of Green Thumbs would be to educate both the Colgate and Hamilton communities about sustainable agriculture, and to build a relationship between students and local farmers whereby students could learn about organic farming through volunteering. The ultimate goal of promoting local, sustainable food sources pointed to the establishment of Colgate’s own organic vegetable garden.
Unfortunately, Green Thumbs did not really take hold that year. However, the outline was still there six years later, in Fall ’07, when a new wave of gardening inspiration hit a group of Outdoor Education students and their friends. According to Green Thumbs president Emily Sabo ‘11, the inspiration originated when the group attended “Powershift,” a lobbying event in Washington, D.C., focused on using alternative energy on college campuses. The interested students, led by Kate Surrurier ’09 and Dimitri Wohns ‘09, found Schoen’s Green Thumbs binder from 2001 and began doing research, signing petitions, and visiting gardens at other schools. During the academic year of ’07-’08, Green Thumbs was not recognized as an official student group. However, the students pushed themselves to be recognized by the Student Government Association (SGA), and finally succeeded in Fall ‘08, when Sabo and Will Cushman ’11 were established as co-presidents, and Professor Chris Henke became the faculty advisor.
Since Fall ’08, Emily Sabo, Chris Henke, and Will Cushman (replaced in Fall ’09 by Halley Parry) have worked together to continue the background research necessary to turn the garden into a reality. By the time John Pumilio, Colgate’s Sustainability Coordinator, included the garden in a list of possible project topics for the Interdisciplinary Investigations in Environmental Issues (ENST 480) class that he co-taught in Fall ’09, a lot of the legwork for the project had already been done. However, it would still take a lot of hard work to put all the background research together and to flesh it out with additional details in order to make a comprehensive garden proposal to present to an administrative body (exactly which administrative body was unknown at that point). This task was taken on by Meg Cronin, Teddi Hoffman, Kate Pavelich, and Maria Kryachko , all Class of ‘10. Using the information, contacts, and decisions that had been made by Green Thumbs, they came up with a 44-page proposal: “The Colgate Community Garden: A Feasibility Report of a Community Garden at Colgate University.” This proposal detailed, among other things, the site options, layout, crops, intended uses of produce, publicity, budget, and management of the garden.
Impressively, Meg Cronin made time during finals week of Fall ‘09 to present the proposal to Lyle Roelofs, Colgate’s provost and dean of faculty, who was then serving as the interim president. As Sabo says, Roelofs was “excited about the idea, but sighted some weaknesses in the proposal and wanted more information.” At the beginning of the spring 2010 semester, the garden advocates followed Roelofs’ advice to present a slightly revised version of the proposal to the Sustainability Council – a group of administrators, faculty, staff, students, and members of the larger Hamilton community that works to make Colgate a more sustainable campus (http://www.colgate.edu/about/sustainability/sustainabilitycouncil.html). The council had a similar reaction. As Sabo says, “… they were supportive, but had some qualms because of some unanswered questions” about location, budget, responsibility, and the destination of the produce, among other things.
At some points, the bureaucratic nature of the administration seemed to put the garden advocates in a no-win situation. Sabo explains that Building and Grounds “would not agree to give us a site until the idea was approved, but approval was dependent on having a chosen site.” Things seemed to be losing momentum until, at one Sustainability Council meeting, Professor Henke stood up and made the point that the garden idea would never go anywhere if no one gave it any support. From that point on, the Sustainability Council started helping to solve some of the questions that had previously led only to dead ends. Members of Green Thumbs also built student support for the garden by promoting it through a petition-signing campaign. Eventually, with a lot of help from the Sustainability Council and the support they raised for the garden, and with a re-structuring of Green Thumbs to create the best possible organization to maintain the garden, the Campus Planning and Physical Resources Committee approved the site for a one-half-acre garden on College St., just past the Newell apartments. Shortly after the site was approved, the Class of 2010 Senior Gift Committee decided to donate their entire gift to the Sustainability Council, and after much controversy, the Council agreed to give that money to the garden. With these two huge successes, Green Thumbs was able to hire two student interns – Rob Jeffrey ‘12 and Stacey Marion ’11 – to get started on the garden in the summer.
The garden’s ground-breaking took place on June 2, 2010. From that point on, the layout and planting of the garden has been in the capable hands of Jeffrey and Marion. Jeffrey, an active member of Green Thumbs working on the garden project since the green summit in February 2010, and Marion, an outdoors-lover with an interest in agriculture and experience in farm work, have been excited about the project since the day they signed on. They both enjoy the amount of freedom they have when it comes to making decisions about the garden. As Marion says, although “… much research had been done on the feasibility of the garden by the Green Thumbs, the farming decisions of the garden were left to us.” While the garden is fully student-run, Green Thumbs put together an advisory committee and hired a consultant so that Marion and Jeffrey would have some guidance in the process of building a garden from the ground up. Selected by Jeffrey and Marion, consultant Stacey Nagle is an avid gardener in Cazenovia, NY and helps at the Colgate garden 10-12 hours a week. The advisory committee, composed of Green Thumbs president, interns, faculty, staff, and local farmers, were all involved in decisions regarding layout, fencing, tool shed, and irrigation, but Jeffrey and Marion were responsible for bringing options to the table.
The first vegetables to go in the ground were squash, cucumbers, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, and a couple rows of tomatoes. Next came the hot peppers, carrots, corn, radishes, and chives. These plants were either purchased or generously donated by local Community Supported Agricultures (CSAs), including Common Thread. Local CSAs and farms have also helped by providing advice on issues such as irrigation and fencing. As Jeffrey and Marion say in the Colgate Garden Blog, “We have received great support from the local agricultural community, and are forming friendships with many local farmers.” This community-building aspect of the garden is exciting, especially because it is exactly what was envisioned by Heather Schoen, the original founder of Green Thumbs.
Thanks to the hard work and organization of Jeffrey and Marion, the plot of ground on College St. has been transformed from a grassy field to a fertile garden that will be sustainably producing food for years to come. Jeffrey and Marion have been selling the garden’s produce to Sodexo (the supplier for Colgate’s dining services) through Purdy and Sons, the company in charge of Sodexo’s local purchases. Unfortunately, Sodexo cannot use produce from the garden in Frank Dining Hall because the amount of harvested produce would not be enough to make a whole dish. This would be problematic because Sodexo would not be able to benefit by advertising the dish as being “from the Colgate Community Garden.” Although Sodexo cannot use the produce in the main Dining Hall on campus, they are using it for meals in The Coop and The Edge (the campus’ alternate dining locations), and for catered events, such as dinners with Lyle Roelofs (provost and dean of faculty), and with Colgate’s president, Jeffrey Herbst. The garden also has a stand set up at the garden on Friday afternoons where they will sell vegetables directly to students, targeting those students who live in off-campus housing where they can cook their own meals. The garden will be maintained during the school year by volunteers, who will also get shares of the produce.
Although the history of Colgate’s garden goes back several years, it is amazing what has been accomplished since last fall. It is the hope of Green Thumbs members that increasing awareness and support for the garden will allow for its further development and augmented role in campus dining. This garden will improve the sustainability of Colgate’s campus, as well as the freshness and tastiness of its food. Good job, Colgate!
