Source: NC A&T COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, 11/17/20

Healthy eating as the semester winds down will get a little easier for some students thanks to a bounty of fall and winter vegetables from the community garden outside Sockwell Hall.

Ten students participating in Student Health’s Healthy Brothers, Healthy Sisters program met at the raised beds outside Sockwell Hall recently to gather kale, chard and radishes, some of the vegetables the group planted at the beginning of the semester. Most of the 24.5 pounds of produce is destined for the campus’s food pantry; the rest will go to other local food agencies.

The students have been tending the winter crops since they were planted at the beginning of the semester.

Jayden Williams, a sophomore criminal justice major, said that he would use some of the greens in a smoothie.
“It’s been interesting to see the plants come from the start, and to watch them changing,” he said.

Alexis Singleton-Robinson, a sophomore kinesiology major, said that she has become a “plant mom” this semester.

“I’ve been coming out all semester, just chilling out with music and relaxing,” she said. “Especially when I’m studying, it’s really calming to just water the plants. With COVID, there’s not really much else to do.”

The community garden idea was planted by Jasmine Cobb, health educator and recreation promotion coordinator at N.C. A&T’s Student Health Center. She approached N.C. A&T Cooperative Extension’s Community Garden Coordinator Alyssa McKim for some ideas of what to plant and how to get the group started.

“With everything going on, we didn’t start planting until the students were here for the fall semester, so we decided to focus on winter crops,” said McKim.  “Gardening not only helps provide healthy food, it can also help with stress relief and helps teach students the importance of health.”

Biological engineering professor Niroj Aryal, Ph.D., takes care of the beds and brings campus groups together to work in the garden. The area also offers many student research opportunities, he said.

For example, students are currently hand-watering each bed. A future project has students design a watering system that’s not manual.

“They can also figure out when to irrigate, how much, what kinds of cover crops are best, things like that,” Aryal said.

In addition to kale, radishes and chard, the students planted beets and broccoli, both of which should be ready later in the semester.