After months of figurative cultivating and planning, the Sustainability Committee and Community Garden is finally ready to break ground and literally begin cultivating. The ceremony will commence Earth Day, which is Apr 22. Festivities at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus kick off at 11 a.m. with a screening of the documentary Fresh, which explores the green food movement and healthy, sustainable growth alternatives. Students and attendees are then invited to get their hands dirty on the east side of the Construction Trades Building, helping to put the garden and raised beds together. The community garden event will go from noon to 2:00 p.m.
What started up as a simple seed between Adam Dastrup, Geo-Science Department Coordinator and chair of the Sustainability Committee, and Jason Thornton, founder of Seeds of Hope, has sprouted to epic proportions. The Community Garden project has hosted several meetings this month at the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, including a lecture by Fred Montague, a professor of Environmental Science at the University of Utah, on the global imperative for the local garden, as well as a raised bed workshop with Wasatch Community Gardens. Most recently, Slow Food and the Learning Center hosted an Earth Day awareness event, where students enjoyed free food and music while learning how to support their local community.
Each function saw an increase in interest and attendance. This has translated to increased donations to the Community Garden, which received a pallet of organic fertilizer from Sun Gro Horticulture, a truckload of unaltered cow manure from Salt Lake Community College student Isaac Martin, and a $3,000 donation from the 2010 Student Body Council.
Jason Thornton, founder of Seeds of Hope, is a bit stunned by the outpouring of support. “I’m also not sure where this money is coming from, but we’re really excited about it,” Thornton says. “We can now afford to purchase redwood for our boxes.” Thornton adds that in the true spirit of the “community garden”, carpenter apprentices will assemble the boxes. Other organizations and clubs participating in the project include the Sustainability Committee, the Thayne Center, The Geo-Science and Biology departments, Student Life and Leadership, Internal Marketing, Concurrent Enrollment, Distance Learning, the Environmental Club, and the American Indian Student Leadership Club.
Thornton added that the best way to get involved is with a department or club, or to participate in one of the student communal boxes this summer. The first step is to show up on Apr. 22 and get your hands dirty. For more information, contact Jason Thornton at jthorn20@mymail.slcc.edu or Adam Dastrup at robert.dastrup@slcc.edu.