Our garden is located on the UMA Bangor campus behind the fitness center. It's about 25'x 32'. We're going to be filling it with vegetables. Campus gardens have been tried before, but we're cleaning this one up and making it a place where anyone can come and enjoy the benefits of gardening. We're not only going to be working on it this year, but we've also created a club to maintain it for many years to come. Having a garden on campus will benefit many. Gardening improves physical health, mental health, increases sense of community, and decreases food insecurity.

We’re a small campus of students and many of us are nontraditional, meaning we aren’t all freshly graduating high school, living at home or staying in dorms, living the college dream. Many of us have jobs, kids, and homes to keep up with while being devoted to our degree. According to a study done by Colleen Coffey, Graduate Student, Library Assistant in fall of 2015, over 50% of our student is first-generation (meaning neither parent completed college), 66% of us are over the age of 25, 94% of incoming freshman qualify for Financial Aid, and 74% qualify for income based Pell grants. We aren’t your average university, and because of this some of our students experience problems others might not. According to the study, Maine is the third most hungry state, and almost 50% of surveyed students have attended a class hungry due to lack of money, and 76% self-identified as being concerned about access to food. What does this mean for a garden? It means that it's crucial to have a space to grow healthy food for our campus.

Too many students in Maine are facing food insecurity. You might be thinking sure, many of us have been there– but it doesn’t have to be that way. With a community garden, we can help students access fresh fruits and veggies by growing them! Having a garden on campus can help so many people with so many different things. That’s where you come in! This garden isn’t going to grow itself! We need lots of help, and we’re grateful for anything. Whether it’s hands on help in the garden, donations of any sort, or just words of encouragement- we could use it all. We are a group of welcoming students who would love help! Even if you've never gardened before, fill out this form or email us at UMABangorCommunityGarden@yahoo.com for more info!

Last year Jason Foley and the UMA Bangor Veteran Outreach Office and Student Life built a community garden on the Bangor Campus! The goal of the garden was to provide students, veterans and other community members experiencing food insecurity with healthy produce at no cost. It was an amazing project, but there wasn’t enough momentum to keep it going on it’s own! This year a whole class is devoted into rebuilding, maintaining, and forming a group to continue the love!

Coffey, Colleen. A Study Of Food Insecurity Among Students At The University of Maine at Augusta- Bangor Campus, Fall 2015. 1 Apr. 2017.