Volunteers prepare College of Public Health Community Garden for planting

On the humid, foggy morning of Saturday, May 6, volunteers gathered outside the UNMC College of Public Health, ready to prepare two large garden beds for planting.

The day began at 9:30 a.m. with nearly 18 tons of rich planting soil split in three giant piles. By 11 a.m., the volunteers, which included students from the College of Public Health, College of Medicine and Office of Graduate Studies, had transferred the mounds of dirt into the raised garden boxes.

Thanks to their hard work, the College of Public Health’s Community Garden is ready to grow. Volunteers are invited to help plant vegetables starting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 13.

UNMC joins hundreds of campuses across the nation whose students, faculty, staff and alumni participate in the maintenance of community gardens. A central goal for the College’s Community Garden, located on the north side of the Maurer Center of Public Health parking lot, is to bring together different members of our campus to grow vegetables that can be given to food pantries and other community groups that provide fresh food.

A planning committee is currently selecting the vegetables that will planted. The group is considering various types of tomatoes, leafy vegetables, melons, strawberries, beans, peppers and some unique items such as cucamelons and chilies.

To learn more about the vegetable garden, contact Julia Quigly at juquigley@unmc.edu, Samantha McCafferty at samccafferty@unmc.edu or Stephen Peters at stephen.peters@unmc.edu.