Sustainable Dining - Student Garden

Dining Services in partnership with the Skidmore Student Garden

Started in 2009, the Skidmore Student Garden is located next to the Colton House on North Broadway. In the past, the student gardeners have grown radishes, beets, lettuce, peas, spinach, zucchini, carrots, squash, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, leeks, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, and herbs. In the summer, they sell the produce to the Dining Hall and use the money earned to pay for next year's seeds and supplies.

In its first season the garden produced over 1,100 lbs. of food and the students hosted a "harvest dinner" that served over 150 student's food either produced by the student garden or donated by the Saratoga Farmer's Market.

The student garden is much more than a garden. It acts as an outdoor classroom, as well as an awareness and educational tool. Students use compost collected on the Skidmore campus, weed by hand, and use no synthetic pesticides. The garden is also a center of an expanding community around interests in environmental issues, social justice, and economic sustainable development; the local food movement, and the ecology of food. The garden has been a great avenue to get students to be more invested in the food that is on their plate in the Dining Hall.

Related Links

• August 2012 Article on the Skidmore student garden, "More than just veggies"
• Student Garden site
• "Can Ya Dig It?" - Student Garden blog
• Student Garden on Facebook
• Pre-Orientation Experience for Agricultural Sustainability (PEAS)
• The Real Food Challenge