EDIBLE CAMPUS PROGRAM
Our church has a partnership with the Edible Campus Program (ECP) from the UCSB Sustainability Internships and Community Resources Department. ECP aims to address local food insecurity by repurposing underutilized spaces for sustainable food production, turning waste into food, and engaging students as growers and producers. We train students in practices that address social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability and help them to reclaim their personal connection to the land and their food.
ECP partnered with the AS Department of Public Worms to launch the Student Farm, which opened in 2019. The farm is a space that fosters community, as well as education, all while connecting students back to their food source and the land. All of the food
grown at the Farm is harvested and distributed through the Associated Students Food Bank. ECP has expanded to providing internship support to six additional community gardens, the Family Student Housing Gardens (Storke and West), Greenhouse and Garden Project, IV Community Center Garden, Methodist Community Garden, and St. Michael's Community Garden. ECP also provides volunteer support to the Three Sisters and Four Directions Garden.
24/7 COMPOST DROP-OFF
Drop off your food scraps anytime at our two convenient 24/7 community composting sites in Isla Vista: Before you drop off your scraps, please review our Food Scrap Guidelines To ensure you're including only acceptable items. Contamination disrupts the composting process and impacts the quality of the final product. By sticking to the guidelines, you're
contributing to nutrient-rich, biocomplete compost that supports healthy soil and thriving plants across Isla Vista!
Place your food scraps in the designated drop-off bins-not directly in the compost piles. This allows our team to inspect donations for contaminants before adding them to the composting process. Following this simple step helps us maintain the integrity of our compost and ensures a sustainable process for the community.
GARDEN DAYS
ECP offers a wide variety of volunteer programs including a weekly Saturday Morning Live (SML) volunteer program where each week we visit a different garden in Isla Vista or on campus and volunteer as a group. We also offer an ongoing solo/small group volunteer program where individuals that want to volunteer in lower intensity volunteer settings and on their own schedule can come out to volunteer at any of our gardens and help with tasks like watering, weeding, etc. ECP also
partners with a wide variety of organizations that are interested in hosting team building events where their group can come out and volunteer together.
Please contact Connor Carpenter
<sa-ecpvolunteer@ucsb.edu> if you are interested in volunteering with us.
WORKSHOPS
ECP offers educational workshops, garden tours, and presentations on topics related to community gardening, sustainable food systems, neighborhood engagement, water wise practices in the garden, and more! Most workshops are lead by student interns trained as garden educators. We typically offer 2-4 workshops each week to a variety of multigenerational audiences. ECP also regularly partners with faculty to do class visits to our gardens, presentations in classes, and to host faculty leading their own programs in the garden.
The U.Me.IV garden is an open and inclusive garden for all community members. The garden is a fully community based garden where there are no private plots. Instead we all plant together, grow together and harvest together. Everything is available for the community to harvest but we ask that you only take the food that you need for your own household. We are looking for people to volunteer and share in our harvest. This garden is a partnership between the Edible Campus Program, the U.Me.IV congregation, and the Isla Vista Community Services District. Methodist Community Garden /Jardin.
