East Carolina University
IN-7: Community Garden

As a part of his regular job duties, the University Sustainability Manager manages the Greenville Community Garden. This involves partnering with the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement to recruit volunteers and host national days of service. This initiative also requires the Sustainability Manager to serve as a site supervisor for two AmeriCorps positions, one recent ECU graduate and the other a current ECU student, who work full time and part-time respectively on work related to the garden, capacity-building, battling hunger in our local community, and providing gardening and nutrition education to local youth. While the garden is not located on institution-owned land, the lease is held by the Sustainability Manager and the garden is supported by several ECU departments plus the local nonprofit called Love A Sea Turtle (LAST). Space is too limited to host a community garden on campus so the garden has been built on a FEMA flood lot (not available for any other use besides gardening or greenspace) just a few blocks from campus along the Tar River Greenway.

The mission of this garden is to grow fresh, local food and to donate the harvested produce to organizations that support food-insecure families in Pitt County. Anyone can come out to the garden to volunteer and take home what they need during harvest times, but the rest is donated. The Sustainability Manager has formed a partnership with Love A Sea Turtle to apply for grants to help expand the garden. This project has been in the works for the past few years and hundreds of ECU students, staff, and faculty as well as community volunteers have provided several thousands of hours of service through this partnership and nearly 1000 pounds of food have been grown, harvested, and donated.

Source: Chad Carwein, University Sustainability Manager