Campus Outreach

Composting Program

Since 2002, the student garden has received daily deliveries of salad bar scraps(approximately 50 pounds) from the cafeteria. In the spring of 2005, rainbow-colored trash cans were placed in the College Dining Hall and the campus-wide composting initiative as we know it began. During 2005, students had the opportunity to scrape their own plates into these bins during breakfast seven days a week. These bins are then collected each day by garden workers. During the following fall the compost program was successfully expanded to include lunch. When students came back from winter break in 2006 they were greeted with new compost bins featuring a tile counter to rest trays on while scraping plates. The compost bins are collected each day by garden workers and brought to the campuses new composting facility site located near campus. The Student Garden is partnering with Facilities Management to manage the compost piles. While the student gardeners collect, transport, and incorporate new food waste, Facilities supplies our piles with woodchips made from tree, shrub, and leaf debris from campus. Facilities Management is also responsible for turing the piles for effective and timely decomposition. This campus wide effort has significantly reduced the amount of food waste that Dickinson College sends to our local landfill. The addition of recycled napkins to our campus Dining Hall has helped with this initiative. It is estimated that the Student Garden composts approximately 800 pounds of food waste each week! The pictures below outline the process.

Get excited about composting!

Eat lunch!

You scrape your plates, Then we load the truck.

Then we unload the truck, then we unload the bins,

Then we cover the food scraps with wood chips.

Baking

In the fall of 2005 the garden began baking organic baked goods for the "Underground" coffee shop on campus. Not only does the Student Garden employ expert gardeners, it has also attracted some talented bakers. The garden's baking project has proven to be a successful (and delicious) addition to our overall efforts for promoting a better awareness for what we put in our bodies.

Starting in 2005, Dickinson College focused on developing the campus' popular "Underground" coffee/snack shop as a marketplace for free-trade, organic and healthier food choices. The Student Garden played a role in making this happen by supplying the Underground with a variety of wholesome and mouth watering baked goods. If you are looking for a great snack that is baked with your health in mind, please check out the growing selection of goodies the Student Garden has on sale at the Underground!

The Student Garden's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program!

During the summer of 2006, the garden elected to take a leap and increase its production to accommodate the growing demand for subscription programs that offer all-natural and fresh produce during the growing season. CSAs have been around for a long time, starting in Japan and Europe before finally making its way to the U.S. in the 1980s. CSAs offer consumers a fresh choice of produce while ensuring a source of income for the farmer growing the food. This symbiotic business model strengthens the relationship between farmer and consumer and promotes our local economies. In 2006, the Student Garden offered a "Open Sky Farm CSA" to the Dickinson campus community. Five lucky families became our first CSA members. Our CSA ran for 12 weeks and offered a variety of in season ingredients, from tomatoes and summer squash to onions, garlic, and flowers. Eggs from a local farm were also available. Students designed the CSA crop plan, managed harvests and transported the fresh goodies to a central location on campus on distribution day. CSA members found helpful recipes, baked treats and a smiling face when they came to pick-up their weekly CSA share. Based on the success and enthusiasm for our first CSA season, the Student Garden aims to offer another CSA program during the 2007 growing season. Faculty, staff, students, and administrators can look forward to signing up for our 12 member CSA that will run 20 weeks during the summer and fall of 2007!

Harvest Fest at Dickinson College

Each Autumn the Student Garden creates a venue where students and community members can come together to celebrate the end of another bountiful growing season. Our Harvest Fests have become a staple fall activity since 2004 with live blue grass music, contra-dancing, cider press, and lots of locally grown food to devour. Not only is this event great fun it is also a delicious way to celebrate the food that farmers produce in our region through our tastebuds!

Dickinson College's Local Food Dinner Celebrations

What better way to expose our students and local community to the vast array of resources that exist in the Cumberland Valley than to create a dinner made with some local ingredients? Since 2005, the Student Garden has worked hard to organize our region's local food celebration. By contacting local farmers and charging the College's Dining Serives with the task of developing a seasonal menu, we have succeeded in drawing a crowd of 200 each year for a feast that is out of this world! We have been fortunate to have local leaders like Kim Tait, owner of Tait Farms, food activist, and agricultural entrepeneur and Nina Planck, Farmers' Market organizer, food activist, and author as keynote speakers at our events. Our 2007 Local Food Dinner Celebration will take place on Saturday, April 21 in the Holland Union Building Social Hall. We are honored to have Jerry Brunetti as our keynote speaker this year!

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