Community Gardens, Food Shelves, Sustainability, Oh My!
Combatting campus food insecurity through community
By M Yeager
Did you know that in a spring 2022 survey of students across St Kate’s, Hamline and Augsburg campuses, 39.9% of students were indicated as food insecure? Since 2005, there has been food justice work on the St Kate’s campus through the Food Justice Coalition, community gardens and most recently, the Food Access Hub, which is a partnership between St Kate’s and the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet.
The Food Access Hub has three major prongs: community gardens, sustainability initiatives and the St Kate’s/CSJ Food Shelf. There is a network of local community gardens that grow fresh produce for the St Kate’s/CSJ Food Shelf. These gardens include the Celeste’s Dream community gardens on the CSJ campus and the St Kate’s community gardens run by Biology Club and the Biology department. The St Kate’s/CSJ Food Shelf is a bimonthly food shelf located in Carondelet Center Kitchen 101 on the first and third Wednesdays of the month from noon to 6 p.m.
How did this all begin? In 2013, Associate Professor of History Louise Edwards-Simpson gave an oral history project that set out to examine the intersection of higher education and housing insecurity. This project included interviews with St Kate’s students, alumni and faculty. In the end, it found that food insecurity was a large issue on campus, which started the converstation about how to combat it. In 2016, the Food Insecurity Project was created, and the first St Kate’s/CSJ Food Shelf was held the next spring. Since then, the Food Access Hub has grown and supports various sustainability initiatives on both campuses. In the summer of 2022, a sustainability working group under President ReBecca Koenig Roloff was created, which includes representatives from the CSJ community, Student Senate, the Food Access Hub, faculty, facilities and purchasing.
The community gardens have been a part of the Spirituality Pillar of CSJ since 2004. It is especially important to the young adult spiritiuality programs at CSJ. “Growing food together in a community is an authentic expression of spirituality,” states Jennifer Tacheny, co-manager of the Food Access Hub and co-director of Celeste’s Dream Young Adult Spirituality. Much of the food harvested from the community gardens is donated to the food shelf. CSJ also provides a space for the food shelf to be held and provides several professional staffing positions, such as Jennifer Tacheny, one of the co-managers, and Hannah White, the operations coordinator. They also pay half of the Community Leader intern stipends.
St Kate’s handles the financial side of things, as well as the student workers and staffing support, such as the other co-manager Deb Sheats. In addition, Dr. Edwards-Simpson’s oral history project in 2013 kickstarted the Food Insecurity Project, and since then St. Kate’s faculty have lended their expertise to assist the Food Access Hub further.
During September, roughly 3,140.7 pounds of food were distributed to 157 households at the food shelf, according to White. The average number of households each month the food shelf is open during the school year is 100 to 150. During breaks, it is less.
The Food Access Hub partners with various organizations between CSJ and St Kate’s, as well as within the Twin Cities. Twin Cities Food Justice, which includes Breadsmith and Co-op Partners Warehouse, is a large donor. Within the St Kate’s and CSJ community, the gardens and the food outlets on campus donate produce and food. Katies End Hunger is another helpful resource on campus, where students can donate their meal points through Access and Success to help food insecure people on campus. Without these donors, the Food Access Hub would not be able to provide healthy and nutrious food. “The generosity of our donors is something that needs to be acknowledged,” Sister Sharon Howell, director of the Center of Spirituality and Social Justice, states.
Community members with their community garden harvest. Credit: Food Access Hub
There are plenty of opportunities for students and community members to help the Food Access Hub, whether it be on delivery days or in the garden. This semester, six The Reflective Woman classes have paired up with the Food Access Hub in community engaged learning. They have helped in the garden, on food shelf days and on delivery days. The Food Access Hub has partnered with Biology Club and the Biology department with the garden beds outside the Coeur de Catherine and the beehives on top of Fontbonne. Many sports teams and clubs have helped during delivery days and in the gardens. The Food Access Hub also helps community members learn about the process of local food growing and food access.
For Kaitlin Corey ‘24 (Public Health), a community leader intern, working for the food shelf has been very fulfilling. “It’s been really fun, meeting new people and hearing all their knowledge about food and food access and things like that, as well as in the food shelf, learning about what people need and what they want and how you can fulfill their needs,” Corey says.
All in all, the Food Access Hub fosters community between students, staff, faculty and community members. “I think the beauty of it is that it’s community helping community,” White says. “We’re trying to all support each other in living healthier lives and having access to wholesome food.”
For more information or to volunteer, email foodshelf@stkate.edu. Gardening Nights are on Tuesdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Delivery Days are on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
