
L-R: Krissy Kopia, Deanna Lu and Chantae Moore, interns at the Department of Landscape Architecture’s Gardening the Garden State project, work to install raised vegetable and herb beds at Shiloh Community Garden in New Brunswick. The beds were designed using recycled materials and are intended for neighborhood use. Photo by Anthony Capece, New Brunswick Community Food Alliance.
This summer, a new service-learning internship that brings together faculty and students with members of the New Brunswick Community Garden Coalition got underway. “Gardening the Garden State” is a community gardens and urban agriculture research project based in the Rutgers Department of Landscape Architecture.
The internship program is funded through a Rutgers Community-University Research Partnership Grant and seeks to design and implement improvements to community gardens in New Brunswick. These designs are intended to address both food production and social space, drawing on the feedback and experiences of garden and community members. In addition, the project includes a pre- and post-survey that will assess attitudes regarding civic engagement, gardening knowledge and the community-university partnership itself as a way to support ongoing strategic planning. For more information, visit http://communitygarden.rutgers.edu or contact Research Associate Luke Drake at ldrake@sebs.rutgers.edu.