A day of service, learning and fun — on September 18, forty Connecticut College students answered President Barack Obama’s call for community action.
Eager Camels biked and carpooled down Williams Street to the FRESH Garden on New London’s Mercer Street to volunteer. The students helped to beautify the city garden in preparation for the next day’s Five Year Anniversary celebration, which took place on September 19, and learned about growing food locally and without the use of pesticides.
“FRESH was cofounded in 2004 by Laura Burfoot and I,” said garden advocate Arthur Lerner. “Our passion was to connect people generally, not just those in niche markets, to the real food movement.”
Burfoot and Lerner were reacting to “ecological illiteracy” they had encountered in their communities, among young and old alike. They wanted to create what they call “paths of participation” into growing natural foods.
The FRESH garden, located at its current site since 2006, grows a variety of produce, from fruits and vegetables to herbs and edible flowers. FRESH’s being centrally located – across from the elementary and middle schools, Terra Cycling and the New London courthouse – means that “tons of people see it,” said Lerner, and that exposure is great for brining in newcomers.
Even during the Green the Block cleanup, he said about fifteen passersby stopped to check out the garden for the first time.
The garden also runs educational programming, employing New London teens at the FRESH site and at their two-acre school farm in Quaker Hill.
According to Lerner, the youth crew hold a widely-attended lunch made from the fresh produce once a week, tend to the budding garden plots, and create presentations on topics ranging from obesity to the loss of farmland to seasonal growing.
Green the Block’s efforts paid off for the garden, and for the students involved.
“I think that as nice as it is to be part of a nationwide effort, the real focus for me is the local effort, and my hope is that a particular ‘day of service’ like this engenders regular community involvement,” said Sprout organic gardening club member Celia Whitehead ’11.
Whitehead continued, “The highlight of the day for me was introducing students who rarely go downtown to FRESH and Fiddleheads, and sharing the bountiful, sustainability-committed culture that is part of New London. It’s a myth that New London is far away and there is nothing to do. What we need to emphasize is our ability, as students with time, energy and dedication, to become a contributing part of the New London community; to take advantage of the wonderful things it has to offer and make connections with incredible people.”
Green the Block ended in a party of warm breads, calzones and pizzas freshly baked in the wood fire oven at the site. The gardeners shared watermelon, guitar tunes and laughter as the sun set on the Whaling City.
Lerner described the students’ action last Friday as “very helpful. They built the first bed, re-mulched pads” for the anniversary party, and cleaned and organized. Useful as the day was, he said, it was “mostly just food, hanging out, and celebrating our survival.”
“I value my time working in the garden as a way to literally ‘ground’ myself and my thoughts. Being in New London is always well worth the effort of leaving campus, if only to remind me who I am outside the ‘Conn bubble,’” said Whitehead.
The FRESH garden is located at the corner of Williams and Mercer Streets in New London.
For more information, check out their website!
