Willimantic, CT – – Eastern Connecticut State University’s Green Campus Committee, led by Nancy Tinker, director of facilities management and planning, has developed a garden site on campus to increase the campus’s commitment to sustainability.
Students on Eastern’s Food and Justice Committee, led by sophomore Bryan Lehner, have begun tilling and planting the garden. They have recently built a compost bin that is large enough to hold fruit and vegetable waste from Eastern’s kitchens, reducing the campus’s solid waste and enhancing the value of the garden soil.
With the efforts of Sally Milius, GROWindham director, Eastern students are collaborating with GROWindham and Windham High School volunteers to develop a harvest of crops that will be available to the Covenant Soup Kitchen and area school kitchens. Under the program, high school students come to the garden each Wednesday afternoon to help with mulching and seed-planting.
A tentative plan to use half the garden as a site for agricultural entrepreneurism with Eastern’s Entrepreneur Club is in the works for this year.
The development of the garden was made possible by an environmental grant from Connecticut Light & Power Company, which enabled the purchase of items for the garden such as weed barrier, hoses, compost and signage. The garden is located on High Street, across from Windham High School.
Eastern Connecticut State University is the state’s public liberal arts university. Eastern serves more than 5,400 students each year on its Willimantic campus and satellite locations.