By Piper Rutherford | Staff Writer
Baylor’s Community Garden is starting fresh this fall after a three-year hiatus, with help from water-preservation technologies, campus composting and a new environmental humanities minor.
When it opened in 2008, the initial mission of Baylor’s Community Garden, which is located at 1701 S. Ninth St., was to supply food for Baylor students in need at the campus food pantry. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was closed to volunteers, but it has returned to full operation this year while expanding its efforts to other businesses in Waco.
Plano sophomore Annecy Marsh, a team member of Baylor’s Community Garden, shared what food the garden produces and where that food is distributed.
“All of the different garden beds, which grow things like berries, tomatoes, celery and lettuce, they go to students on Baylor’s campus, like The Store and pantry,” Marsh said. “Last semester, for instance, we grew 10 bunches of lettuce, which can feed about 20 people. However, we are currently trying to get hospitals to learn about our garden so that we can give our produce to patients in hospitals who do not have access to those types of fresh foods while in treatment.”
As for the science behind the garden, Marsh said the process involves limiting the amount of water used for the plants — a project developed and monitored by the graduate students at Browning Square.
“The garden beds are raised above the ground, and they have water tubes that conserve water by only allowing plants to take what they need to prevent overwatering,” Marsh said. “It measures the right amount of water for the plants that are growing. All of that water is then reused.”
Dr. Josh King, director of environmental humanities, said Baylor’s new partnership with Waco’s Sustainable Community Regenerative Agriculture Project works to target the environmental problem of food waste in landfills.
“Right now, we have a landfill that is going to be filled up soon, so much so that the City of Waco is building a new one,” King said. “These sites store a huge portion of food waste in the form of scraps that could be saved instead. These scraps produce huge amounts of methane, which eventually turns into carbon and is contributing to the climate crisis, while those who are the most vulnerable experience the most consequences.”
This is a central theme of the new environmental humanities minor on campus, which is geared toward students looking to learn about the cultural and ethical impacts of growing local produce. King said this will be the minor’s first full academic year.
“This minor is a chance for students to be exposed to a combination of literature, history, imagination, culture, ethics and faith, which all matter for how we choose to treat the Earth and, more importantly, one another in it,” King said.
King said his classes study the history of food justice systems and how they directly impact low-income households.
“Rather than using the term ‘food desert,’ I try to teach my students the term ‘food apartheid,’” King said. “A desert can make a community seem like it doesn’t have life or agency, while the term ‘food apartheid’ puts the focus on structural reasons, such as a lack of grocery stores in a community, inadequate bus systems and neighborhoods that are targeted with fast food restaurants.”
As for the minor’s specific courses, Dr. King said they range across all disciplines of study, including a new theater class for students looking to bring sustainable practices to the stage.
“I am pleased that we have more courses that are connected with the Baylor Community Garden now,” King said. “There is even a theater class that focuses on costume design, such as how you can be sustainable sourcing materials, then produce them for the actors to wear in their play.”
Marsh said another environmentally sustainable practice at Baylor is the composting system at the Penland Crossroads dining hall.
“We are also now implementing compost bins, using the soil from Penland Dining Hall’s compost,” Marsh said. “Our goal is to be able to have every dining hall have an everyday composting structure.”
Marsh said students who are interested in hands-on experience in the garden can volunteer.
“Any kind of student or person, even if they are not involved in Campus Kitchen, are free to help,” Marsh said. “Every Saturday from [9 to 11 a.m.], volunteers can come help us by watering the gardens, cleaning up trash that accumulates around the area and making sure that there are no pests so that we can continue cultivating this special garden.”
