Community Garden opens to improve food insecurity for the community

Alamo Colleges District-Palo Alto College officially opened its new Community Garden to help combat food insecurity among students and the surrounding community. Many neighborhoods near the College are considered "food deserts" – areas which are lacking access to healthy, affordable food found at grocery stores, farmers markets, and healthy food providers. Programming at the garden will include educational components to inform the community about nutrition and gardening techniques.

"As we open the Palo Alto College Community Garden, we are expanding opportunities for experiential learning and empowering our students to educate their peers and our community at large," said Dr. Robert Garza, president of Palo Alto College. "By providing increased access to nutritious, affordable food, our hope is that the Community Garden helps promote healthier lifestyles."

The Palo Alto College Community Garden contains plots which anyone from the community can check out and grow produce of their choice. To support service learning, students from Palo Alto College's Agriculture and Horticulture programs will help conduct monthly workshops to teach community members how to plant, maintain, and harvest the produce in the garden. When it comes time to harvest, community members can either keep the produce for themselves or donate it to the College's food pantry.

The Garden was funded as part a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education within the Project Impacto grant, which has supported various resources available through the College's Student Health, Advocacy, Resource, and Engagement (S.H.A.R.E.) Center. The Community Garden is an addition to other campus initiatives to provide healthy food to students and the community, including the on-campus food pantry and biannual Food Fairs, both supported by the San Antonio Food Bank.

To learn more about the Community Garden and other campus resources available to students and the community, contact the S.H.A.R.E. Center at 210-486-3121.