A new community garden at Stony Brook Southampton is putting down roots, helping bring fresh, locally grown produce to East End families.
Stony Brook University celebrated the opening of the Stony Brook Southampton Community Garden at The FoodLab on September 1. Built over the summer by students, apprentices and community partners, the garden will offer students hands-on experience in food production, sustainability and community service.
The garden, a collaboration among The FoodLab, Stony Brook Southampton Student Life, the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center and community partners, was designed as both a learning space and a source of fresh food for local families. Produce harvested from the garden will support a produce prescription CSA program that provides community members with boxes of fresh, nutrient-dense, East End-grown fruits and vegetables, along with recipes offering ways to prepare and incorporate the produce into healthy meals.
“This community garden reflects what we believe the future of the Southampton campus can be — a place where sustainability and wellness are not simply ideas we teach, but things we put into practice,” said FoodLab Executive Director Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz.
The project brought together partners from across Stony Brook and the East End community. Among those who helped bring the garden to life were Richard Czyzyk, director of Student Life at Southampton; Michael Austin, associate director of Conference Southampton Housing Administration; and Bonnie Cannon, Jenna Solis and Alaya Hewie of the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center.
Much of the physical work of creating the garden was completed this summer by apprentices participating in FoodLab’s Taste of the Trades program, supported by the Suffolk County Department of Labor. The apprentices constructed garden infrastructure and planted their own raised beds alongside students and community members, learning how food is grown while seeing how their work could contribute directly to their community.
Throughout the summer, Taste of the Trades participants also harvested, washed and packed produce with Brian Halweil, FoodLab farm and greenhouse manager, and Ken Giosi, Taste of the Trades summer program manager.
The garden received additional support from a $50,000 grant from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, which helped fund infrastructure and the distribution of produce to local families. A Stony Brook University Presidential Mini Grant enabled the construction of the garden’s first raised beds.
Stony Brook students have also played a role in connecting the food grown at Southampton with the community. Graduate student Justine Galvan, the garden’s CSA coordinator, helped organize the flow of produce from the field to participating families, while Hewie served as the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center’s CSA recruiter and distributor, helping connect families with fresh FoodLab produce.
The garden’s inaugural season focused largely on building the space and establishing the partnerships that will allow it to grow. Going forward, organizers envision the garden as a place where education and food production can connect with efforts to improve access to nutritious food for East End residents.
“By growing fresh, nutritious food and expanding access to it, including through our produce prescription CSA program, we can bring students, Stony Brook Medicine and the community together around a simple but powerful idea,” Carmack-Fayyaz said. “What we grow, what we eat and who has access to good food matter deeply to the health of our communities.”
— Beth Squire
Add comment