Garden promotes healthy habits

While many students go to Sunset Canyon Recreation Center to play Frisbee, swim or work on their tans, a small group of ecologically minded students spend their time working in an organic vegetable garden.

The garden is a way to get the community involved in providing responsible food options, said Jaynel Santos, a third-year environmental sciences student and coordinator of the garden.

While it is currently in its planning stages, Santos said that she hopes the garden will eventually be able to produce herbs and other produce for use in campus dining halls.

“If you bring herbs from other locations, it wastes time and gas. … This would be more cost-effective and create less pollution,” Santos said.

The garden, which was started in 2006, is organized by E3 ““ Ecology, Economy, Equity ““ a student group that promotes ecological responsibility, Santos said.

Many of the students who work in the garden are members of E3, though students who are not members are also invited to help with the work, she added.

Before this year, students grew produce in the garden for their own consumption, said Alisa Ahmadian, co-chair of E3.

This is the first year that the group has aimed to grow produce for use in campus dining halls, she said.

Ahmadian said the first type of produce given to the dining halls will be basil, which the group will be buying seeds for this week.

However, Santos said that the garden is in need of a lot of work before it will be able to provide herbs and other produce to the dining halls.

Though some vegetables are currently grown there, the soil does not allow them to fully develop, Santos said.

To get the garden up and running, new soil needs to be brought in and the garden needs to be weeded, she added.

Santos said she hopes that students from the UCLA community will get involved by working in the garden, and there is already interest among campus groups to help with the project.

Kendra Smith, a resident assistant at Canyon Point, said she is planning on creating a program where students from the dorms volunteer their time to help with the garden.

Part of Smith’s interest in the program comes from the fact that her own high school had an organic garden that she worked in along with other students.

“It sparks a different interest to know that the food came from nearby, and that the people around you actually put in work to produce the food,” she said.

Smith said that the program would be a way to reach out to students interested in sustainability and to let them know that sustainable options are available.

Smith said that she has already seen interest in the program among her residents, despite the fact that the program is not set to start until May.

Smith also said she would like for the program to be a starting point for similar projects across the Hill.

“I’m hoping that this becomes bigger, that other RAs become interested in programming with the garden as well,” she said.

In addition to dorm involvement, Santos said that the garden could be a resource for many classes on campus.

She added that a former professor of hers had already expressed interest in bringing students to the garden as a way to teach sustainability.

In addition, Santos said she hopes that the garden will eventually foster connections beyond the UCLA community.

For example, elementary school children could visit the project to learn about gardening and see how plants grow, Santos said.

“We need to start teaching kids at a young age about growing their own food and about sustainability,” Ahmadian said.

Both Ahmadian and Santos cited the environmental movement as well as an increased health consciousness as being responsible for the growing interest in sustainable food options.

However, Santos said that her own personal interest in the garden lay in the wide-reaching appeal of sustainabilty.

“It’s a better way of living because it builds community.”

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