Nestled near a heavily trafficked part of Grounds, the UVA Student Garden is one of Charlottesville’s many green spaces dedicated to fighting food insecurity within our community.

History

Located on the corner of Alderman and McCormick, UVA’s Student Garden is a place where students and community members can go to spend some time around nature and grab whatever plants are ripe at the time. Although originally maintained by a CIO, the Service Learning Team of the Office for Sustainability now ensures the garden is watered, weed-free, and full of a variety of plants throughout the year. 

Aside from regular Student Garden Workdays, the garden has hosted an array of classes and CIOs. This past year, Professor Kate Stephen’s first year writing class, centered around food insecurity, routinely worked in the garden and painted the shed to highlight community resources. Although many spend just four years here, throughout work in the garden, they have been able to make a lasting impact on both UVA and the surrounding community. 

Community Gardens and Food Equity

The UVA Student Garden…

• Is a community garden: any member of the UVA and Charlottesville community can use the space. By providing the area and support for community members to grow their own food, community gardens address food insecurity and provide healthy foods. We also only use compost from Black Bear Composting for our beds, which is the same facility that UVA Dine’s food waste goes to, achieving true circularity.
• Donates to the UVA Community Food Pantry: any excess crops harvested from the Student Garden that participants do not take home make their way to the food pantry. This student-run initiative provides food and hygiene items to reduce financial hardships of UVA students and staff, and they also aim to quantify food insecurity at UVA to promote a more just food system.
• Is a collection of student projects: the wooden picnic table, work table, and shed that we use was made for us by UVA Sawmilling using reclaimed wood that had fallen on Grounds! Additionally, our water collection device was designed and built by a group of first year engineering students.

Getting Involved

Interested in getting in some gardening or just looking to appreciate the green space that the UVA Student Garden provides? As a community garden, this site is open to any community members or students to participate at their own discretion - this includes planting, weeding, watering, and even harvesting! 

We hold regular garden work days during the Fall and Spring academic semesters as well as the months of June through early August. Currently, our work day schedule is as follows:

• Mondays from 11:00AM to 12:00PM
• Fridays from 12:00PM to 1:00PM 

Volunteers do not need to sign up, and all gloves/supplies are located in the shed at the garden. Notice anything missing, or just interested in some specific seeds? Click here to submit a supply request to be reviewed by the Office for Sustainability!

Workday Schedule / Planting Diagram

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