As people around Fairfield County struggle to find food sources, the Saint Martha's Garden at Sacred Heart University will provide a place to find food. It will also teach students how to grow food in a time when self-sufficiency is becoming more and more important.
SHU Volunteers have worked in community gardens off campus, said Dawn Doucette, Sacred Heart's coordinator of volunteer programs. So it only made sense to bring a community garden to campus. This project is representative of the mission of this office and the university. The garden is located in a corner of the campus behind the health services building. It has four raised beds, each containing rows of red and black bush beans. It will be tended by Sacred Heart students and campus operations staff. Local volunteers and members of Harvest Now, a Catholic Charities group proposed the idea to Sacred Heart.
Soil was provided by Bruce Moore Jr., director of landscape management for Eastern Land Management of Stamford. The Home Depot in Bridgeport donated additional supplies. Campus Operations staff member Rafael Rivera and his team have been particularly generous, helpful and supportive from the beginning, pitching in to bring the soil up the hill to the garden beds, said Doucette. Campus Operations staff member, Ryan Sokolowski, designed and organized the building of the fence, added Doucette, after she realized that rabbits were regularly stopping by the garden.
Sacred Heart plans to enlarge the garden and get more students involved. For now, the donations will go to local charities, who are struggling to find food in these difficult times.
The students will decide on an expansion based on the needs of the community being served, said Doucette.
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