Food Justice Garden at Martin Luther University College feeds students' needs
Martin Luther University College and Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG) partnered this summer to grow a garden to promote food justice on campus.
Students and community members care for the raised beds of vegetables and herbs, in a plot dubbed the Food Justice Garden, located on Luther’s campus, facing Albert Street.
The harvest will be distributed at Laurier’s Indigenous Student Centre as well as the Free Weekly Distro on Luther’s campus, an initiative by Luther and LSPIRG that provides students with free groceries, household supplies and hygiene products.
The garden includes 23 different kinds of herbs and vegetables maintained by about 15 volunteers who maintain the garden. The volunteers include students, Luther staff and faculty, Distro and community members.
Mikayla Wall, head garden co-ordinator and member of Climate Justice Laurier (the LSPIRG group leading the garden project), had a prominent role in co-ordinating the efforts that brought this initiative to life and currently oversees the daily maintenance of the garden.
“We started the garden last year on Wilfrid Laurier University’s campus. Its main function came about after learning from a Laurier survey that 40 per cent of Laurier students struggle with food insecurity to some degree,” Wall explained. “We hope to educate our students and community about growing healthy, ultra-local food while giving it back to them.
“This year we teamed up with Luther, in an amazing partnership, and the Indigenous Student Centre,” Wall said.
Prior to being at Luther, this project took the form of multiple small gardens sprinkled around Laurier’s Waterloo campus, however there was a growing need for a centralized garden with more space.
“We inquired about Luther’s campus, and they immediately jumped on board to utilize their unused space for the garden,” Wall said. “We have a lot of long-term plans in the works so that we can really utilize all of the space we have available over the next few years.”
This project is funded by the Sustainable Hawk Fund, LSPIRG and Luther’s Centre for Earth Consciousness and Gender Justice.
Mary (Joy) Philip, director of the Centre for Earth Consciousness and Gender Justice, said she is pleased to be supporting the project that meets the goals of planetary well-being and justice.
“Climate justice and food justice are intrinsically connected,” Philip said. “When there is climate justice there will be food justice, and Luther is committed to bringing this kind of security to the students on campus! Towards this end, we are happy to work with LSPIRG to support this Food Justice Garden to supply locally grown foods to students struggling with food insecurity.”
To get involved with caring for the garden or for other climate action in solidarity with Indigenous communities, please email climatejusticelaurier@gmail.com
To support the Free Weekly Distro, visit our donor web page, select “other” and enter “Free Weekly Distro” in the space provided.
For more information on the project, visit LSPIRG’s Distro website.
To see more pictures of the Food Justice Garden, visit the photo album.
Media enquiries:
Andreas Patsiaouros
Student Support and Communications Assistant
(519) 884-1970 Ext. 3512