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Purpose of Community Gardens
Community Benefits
  • Help reduce crime
  • Sometimes reclaim abandoned spaces
  • Help create a community presence which may deter crime
  • Create beauty and tranquility
Economic Benefits
  • Reduce cost of obtaining food
  • Often reduces hunger due to location in low-income communities
  • Teach people how to provide for themselves
  • Promote local economies, including the non-monetized economy
  • Provide opportunity for small-scale entrepreneurial activity
Educational Benefits
  • Are a great education tool for both youth and adults about how nature works
  • Connect us with nature
  • Provide youth a constructive outlet for their energies
Environmental Benefits
  • Promote less dependence on the global/corporate food system with all of its environmental harms
  • May reclaim abandoned spaces
  • Are generally more intensive in yield per acre and therefore "consumes" less land
  • May capture and reuse stormwater runoff
  • Diminish the "heat island" effect in urban areas
  • Provide the carbon dioxide fixation effects of plant growth
  • Generally use little or no pesticides and builds the soil organically
  • Shorten the distance of consumer to food, eliminating long-distance shipping, with its negative consequences such as global warming gas emissions and continual replacement of road (and other) infrastructure
Health Benefits
  • Provide fresh fruits and vegetables (which may be organic as well)
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables taste better, making healthy eating easier
  • Provide exercise
  • Provide an opportunity for those who love gardening
  • Connect people with nature and the seasons
  • Provide stress relief through contact with tranquil green spaces and the activity of gardening Improve mental health thru a variety of factors, including social contact and the sense of accomplishment in growing good food
  • Provide an opportunity for exercise and fresh air
  • Give people more control over what goes into their food
  • Have more nutritional value in food that has not come a long distance causing nutrient deterioration
Social Benefits
  • Get people more out in and involved with the community
  • Bring people together and build relationships
  • Provide a means for cultural expression and exchange
  • Connect people with their communities
 
Who We Are

The GVSU Community Garden was started during the 2008 summer when a group of students, faculty and staff found common ground in their desire to make the GVSU campus more sustainable. The idea of a community garden where people would learn how to produce their own food, become educated about organic farming practices and build solidarity with one another was implemented as a means to achieve this goal. With a successful first year under our belt the Garden is rapidly expanding.

The mission of the GVSU Community Garden is “to provide a forum for education, discussion, and practice of the environmental, social, and economic aspects of food systems; focusing on the importance of consuming local and organic foods.”

To achieve this mission we have set a few crucial goals for this season:

• Provide Garden plot owners with the tools and other resources necessary to become successful gardeners.
• Build a sustainable fence to enclose the Garden and protect our fruit, flowers and produce from pests.
• Host educational events and activities for Garden plot owners and community members to attend.
• Hire an intern to maintain the Community Garden.

What is our vision for the future?

By providing students, faculty, and staff with a space to connect we hope to promote experiential learning through growing food and building relationships. In the future, the garden will provide a venue for individuals, groups, and organizations to engage issues of sustainability, foster an attitude of environmental stewardship, and establish strong connections throughout the community.

"Having a garden is a step toward a more ecologically durable and socially just society with tangible personal rewards," -Wisdom for a Livable Planet.
 
Location

The garden is located just west of the Wesley house on Luce Street, about 1 mile south of the GVSU Allendale campus.


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