Canada: Students helping food insecure students through the University of Calgary’s Science Community Garden

“The plants grow themselves but I would say just the watering and the harvesting takes a fair bit of time,” said Guthrie.

By Kevin Fleming
CTV News Calgary Video
Apr 19, 2024

Excerpt:

Science students at the University of Calgary use their roof top greenhouse to conduct all kinds of projects and had a little extra space that wasn’t being used. so some of them came up with the idea of growing food for the campus food bank.

“It was sort of a collaboration between a few people,” said Allison Guthrie, grad student. “But I was a big part of starting it, the Dean definitely was very supportive right from the very beginning, encouraged me and pointed out ways that we could do it.”

Kristin Baetz, the dean of science, says when students have initiatives that it has a big impact in the community.

“We’re a research intensive institution,” she said. “We do amazing research in this greenhouse, game changing, especially on crops and how are we making them water resistant, pest resistant for Alberta.”

Baetz says the Science Community Garden is a big commitment for the students to take on in addition to their studies.

“It shows how talented our students are, how driven our students are and creative,” she said. “It’s student led, it’s developed by students, and the faculty is there helping along the way.”
Guthrie hears students talking in the halls about how challenging it is for them to make ends meet and they’re forced to make tough decisions between rent, tuition and food.

Read the complete article here.