Seeking to branch out campus-wide ‘go green’ efforts to the Morningside Heights and Harlem communities, the Columbia University Food Sustainability Project is applying to become part of Community Impact.
As part of the Green Umbrella group for earth-friendly clubs, CUFSP currently teaches children about nutrition and plans to plant a garden at the Ulysses S. Grant Houses, located between Broadway and Morningside Avenue at 123rd to 125th Streets. After applying for grants to work with the General Grant Houses—an affordable housing complex—Becky Davies, CC ’10 and CUFSP president, found that Columbia’s Student Governing Board mainly funds initiatives that take place on campus.
Like the SGB, the Green Umbrella focuses on campus projects. Their purpose is “to get groups together and advertise events,” Davies explained.
Hannah Perls, CC ’11 and president of Green Umbrella, agreed. “We’re just a coordination group,” Perls said.
Last year, CUFSP started out planting a garden on campus and pushed for green habits in dining halls, but the group began cultivating an interest in extending its roots around the neighborhood. Sociology professor Sudhir Venkatesh, who encouraged Davies to get involved in community service, inspired the idea of the garden uptown. CUFSP then began to search for an organization that would focus on service beyond the campus gates. Jason Patinkin, CC ’09 and an EcoRep, helped introduce Davies to Community Impact and encouraged her to file an application with the organization—due in by March 7th.
“It’s really just a logistical matter of where do we house this project, which, by its nature, involves so many groups,” Davies explained.
With its prospective Community Impact membership, combined with its continued participation in Green Umbrella, CUFSP would look to embark on a campaign to make the Grant Houses more eco-friendly. The first step would be to raise funds for seeds, tools, and fencing for the garden, which Davies estimates will cost about $5,000. Currently, Davies said, CUFSP has about $1,100 in its bank accounts.
CUFSP would plant the garden during Earth Week—the week of April 22—encouraging the senior citizens who live in the Grant Houses to get involved. CUFSP members hope to help the residents maintain the garden.
“The idea is to get them excited about the garden that will be coming,” Davies said. “We’re going to start by teaching about plants and how they grow and what part of the plants we eat ... what’s healthy that we eat and why,” she added of the group’s after-school programs for neighborhood kids.
Davies said that such classes have been successful so far and are likely to grow in popularity and size. CUFSP hopes to keep up the program over the summer, when most Columbia student groups are disbanded. Since gardening season is primarily in the summer, the group might need to bring in additional resources or transfer funds to a local community group, such as the Grant Housing Tenants Association, Davies explained.
The 30 regular members of CUFSP are now working with the Grant community, which has proved to be very open to the students, already giving them clearance to start-up the garden there.
Within Columbia, other groups are equally enthusiastic about the project, Davies noted. “Just talking to FSP [the Food Sustainability Project] and the students who were involved, it seems like a very exciting project ... from what I’ve heard from them, it seems like it’s going pretty well,” she said.
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