Digging For Chickens

When we went to the UEPI garden to help FEAST last Thursday I helped dig out a trench that would house the cinder blocks that needed to go under the chicken coop. The cinder blocks were needed under the chicken coop to act as a barrier to animals digging under the coop and assaulting the helpless hens. While we were in the garden and I was digging I thought two things - one was a horrible play on words about how I dug digging and the other was how I was impressed with the progress made in the garden by FEAST.

It is nice to see the model of a community garden coming to fruition on campus after hearing about the benefits of community gardens in nearly every UEP class that I have taken. The garden helps encourage sustainability in multiple ways. All of the supplies used in the garden are bought locally, no pesticides are used to grow the vegetables, the locally grown food feeds the volunteers that work to grow the vegetables, and there will soon be free range chickens.

While I am not a foodie like crew that spearheaded the creation of the community garden, the value of having a community garden on campus is not lost on me. Having good food that you grew yourself is an obvious benefit but the garden can also act as an educational tool. Prof. Villianatos mentioned that the green living campus house was considering creating their own garden. The work of FEAST can help in the creation of their garden in offering pointers on what works and what doesn't. The garden can also be used for educating the neighborhood about how they might be able to translate our garden into their own efforts to grow at least some of their own food.