Local project supports social movement

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, the original version of this story misrepresented where produce will be exported. Youth participants will be able to take home produce they grow and excess will be donated to the Carolina Campus Community Garden. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.

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Update: The summer pilot test will be at Chapel Hill Community Center Learning Garden.

UNC students Giszell Weather and Bronwyn Fadem are starting a movement to close the disparity gap between youth, white people and people of color in the food sustainability community.

To do this, Weather and Fadem came up with Herban Garden — a project that focuses on including young people of color in gardening and food sustainability practices through workshops and gardening plots.

Kendra Meyer, spokesperson for Herban Garden, explained that Herban Garden began as an initiative of Hope Gardens.

She said Weather and Fadem received the Robert E. Bryan Fellowship, a service-learning fellowship, and recruited Chloe Brown and herself to help make the dream a reality.

Herban Garden is set to launch this summer with a pilot test on June 20 where the group will decide its main gardening plot.

Weather and Fadem said they plan to have gardening plots behind Davis Library by spring 2017.

“The primary purpose of the garden space is to provide tangible, hands-on experiences,” Meyer said.

Meyer said participants would be exposed to gardening plots at the N.C. Botanical Garden, Hope Gardens, the Jackson Center and the Carolina Campus Community Garden.

Youth participants will be able to take home produce they grow and excess will be donated to the Carolina Campus Community Garden where it will be distributed to third shift UNC employees.

Herban Garden will also host workshops and field trips, provide culinary activities and provide opportunities for adults to develop mentorship skills.

“My interest in food and community building inspired my desire for after-school programs to get involved in gardening activities and to help youth be self-sufficient,” Weather said.

The project has received feedback and counseling from various charity and nonprofit organizations such as the Street Scene Teen Center, an after-school youth program, Edible Campus, Blackspace and others.

Brentton Harrison, a volunteer at Blackspace and advisor to Herban Garden, said he has high hopes for this project.

“In a few years I hope to see Herban Garden blossom into something that could partner up with local restaurants and the local school system,” he said.

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