The WVU Campus Food Garden will expand its growing space this summer to include an urban farm and a learning center at the Abundant Life Greenhouse in Westover. With help from the Office of the Provost’s Transform This! Challenge Grant, this project was spearheaded by Nikki Byrne-Hoffman and Katrina Stewart of the Department of Biology.
At this collaborative site, the Campus Food Garden will grow fresh food for local food pantries while promoting biodiverse habitats and engaging students and the general public in local food systems. The expansion project is funded with more than $23,000 from the Presbytery of West Virginia and First Presbyterian Church.
Earlier this month, more than 20 volunteers from the United Way's Day of Caring, including those from the FPC, United Way's Helpful Harvest and Huntington Bank, built twelve new raised bed boxes. More beds will be built during upcoming workshops during the Fall semester.
The WVU community is invited to fill the beds with soil and amendments for summer crop planting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday (May 21). Those interested in volunteering should bring gloves, shovels and wheelbarrows, if available.
Find more information and sign up here.
The current Garden, which resides on the Evandale Campus, donated more than 1,000 pounds of fresh produce to The Rack at WVU, Community Kitchen and food pantry partners of First Presbyterian Church of Morgantown last year.
The greenhouse is managed and operated by Sven Verlinden of the Davis College Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, Abundant Life Recovery and the United Way Helpful Harvest program.
For questions, contact Byrne-Hoffman at cbyrne1@mail.wvu.edu.