New Schreyer Pocket Garden built by Penn State student brings awareness to food insecurity
“Administration doesn’t usually allow students to modify Penn State grounds because students graduate and interests change,” Peacock said. “That was a big challenge.
By Julia Mertes
The Daily Collegian
Jan 11, 2022
Excerpt:
Peacock said the Schreyer Pocket Garden project addresses many of the issues she highlighted around campus and provides a central working space for students to be able to “walk by, see it, ask questions and learn about food insecurity in general and its prevalence on campus.”
A pocket garden is a garden constructed in a confined area that permits gardeners to use underutilized spaces to efficiently grow produce and other forms of vegetation, according to Gardening Know How.
Peacock’s pocket garden provides education and community engagement for Penn State students, and this spring, it will produce fresh foods for those experiencing food insecurities on campus.
She said the pocket garden’s presence on campus may inspire students to seek the resources available to them if they are experiencing insecurity and provide students with educational and community opportunities to learn how to grow food.
A nationwide #RealCollege Survey, conducted most recently in 2019 by The Hope Center, discovered 33% of four-year college students experience some extent of food insecurity, according to Penn State’s Food and Housing Security Task Force Report released in February 2021.
