Imagine walking through campus and stopping to nibble on a strawberry or pick a tomato and some basil to make a salad later. That’s exactly what’s happening spring through fall at NIU, thanks to Edible Campus.
The Edible Campus program got a sweet taste of success during its first year of operation last year, and project leaders are excited to see it expand even further.
Edible Campus is in perfect alignment with the university’s sweeping Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, which calls for NIU to “chart an ambitious path forward to become an innovator and leader in sustainability.”
The first phase of Edible Campus was the creation of a network of free-to-pick gardens for students, employees and the community. Once these beds were put in place, a market garden was developed to provide fresh, campus-grown produce to Campus Dining and the Huskie Food Pantry. NIU classes about food sustainability and research programs are engaging with Edible Campus.
Edible Campus involves volunteers from throughout the NIU community, including students and student groups, NIU employees, and local residents; partnerships with local, state and national organizations and companies; and events taught by NIU employees and partners related to food and sustainability.
Dr. Amy Jo Clemens, assistant vice president in the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development (OERD), which oversees the program, sang its praises and said the program will continue to grow.
“There hasn’t been a piece of it that hasn’t worked out, and as we keep growing it, we keep adding more partnerships,” Clemens said. “Everybody on campus has been so excited about it. It’s been such a collaborative, positive initiative.”
Clemens credited Bryan Flower, a professional chef who is the program’s director and the assistant director of food systems innovation at NIU, for forwarding the idea of the Edible Campus.
Flower said he had researched other universities with sustainable agriculture programs, including the University of Kentucky, which has an off-campus butcher shop, and the University of North Carolina, which has a similar program.
“I put a presentation together showing what would happen if we built little beds around campus for growing food and students could pick produce as they were going from one class to another, just something simple,” Flower said.
As the idea continued to percolate, a funding opportunity became available in the form of a congressionally directed funding grant from Senator Dick Durbin, who has a strong interest in programs addressing sustainability and food insecurity.
The initial funding for the project comes from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Division of OERD received $500,000 in federal funding in December 2022 to be paid over three years to establish the Edible Campus and related workforce development training.
Dr. Rena Cotsones, vice president of OERD and chief engagement officer, principal investigator on the grant, immediately turned to Flower to develop the Edible Campus concept.
In the spring of 2023, the Edible Campus began to take shape. From the beginning, collaboration with NIU and community partners was an important element of the project.
“Developing a network of champions and partners is key to ensuring the long-term sustainability of a project like this,” Flower said.
He began lining up partnerships with local and state organizations and companies to expand resources and ensure that the Edible Campus vision could become a reality. There was no shortage of partners lining up to help.
The initial partners included Ball Agriculture, which donated seeds; Garden Prairie Organics, which donated 40 yards of compost; Gordon Hardware in DeKalb, which donated an entire suite of tools and sold additional tools to the program at cost; and Feeding Illinois, which donated 200 raised garden beds.
Midwest Groundcovers, a local wholesaler, was so excited about the project that they pitched in to build a 1,300-square-foot greenhouse to help the program extend its growing season.
Flowers and a crew of university and community volunteers installed 100 of the raised beds during its first year, growing a wide variety of crops, including tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, herbs, eggplant and sunflowers.
In addition, the program built a 5,000-square-foot market garden behind Anderson Hall. That garden grew more than 3,000 pounds of produce last year that was supplied to Campus Dining and the Huskie Food Pantry, along with food for the Edible Campus Meal Prep Program and its Preservation Program.
“When we started building this market garden, we realized we needed to start building some programs because our mission is to help solve food insecurity,” he said.
The Meal Prep Program helps students who are food insecure and unable to cook at home.
“We built the Meal Prep Program off a conversation I had with a student who told me, ‘I use the Huskie Food Pantry, but I can’t take the produce because I don’t have a kitchen to cook it in,’” Flower said.
Flower said College of Health and Human Sciences leadership allowed them to use kitchen space in Wirtz Hall and lent them a graduate assistant to help with the Meal Prep Program.
Every Monday afternoon from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. for 12 weeks during the fall and spring semesters, students can come in and cook meals using Edible Campus market produce and ingredients that have been donated by the Undeniably Dairy organization.
“Students cook enough for five meals, we give them the containers to take them away in that are reusable, microwave friendly, and BPA free, and they can come back the following week with the containers and do a different recipe,” he said.
The program has guided students to cook more than 765 meals so far, starting during the last fall semester, Flower said.
The Preservation Program is led by Pick Museum of Anthropology Curator Jessica Cima, who teaches students how to preserve produce. For example, last semester she taught a group how to jar their own tomato sauce.
Flower said the program aims to double its market garden space to 10,000 square feet during the next growing season.
Flower is also working to develop sustainable food-growing workshops for students and the local community with DeKalb County Community Gardens (DCCG), another partner. Along with DCCG, the Edible Campus program also installed a worm composting farm called a Vermicompost system.
There are also many research components involved with the program. Last year, ComEd donated a $200,000 40-foot-long hydroponic grow container they call the Hydropod as part of an indoor food production research project with the Electrical Power and Research Institute (EPRI). EPRI will be monitoring the units over 16 months as Edible Campus operates it, and at the end of the project, the unit will become a permanent part of the Edible Campus.
“When fully operational, the unit has the capability to provide a substantial amount of food, around 100 pounds of leafy greens per week,” Flower said.
There are plans to start a vegan/vegetarian food truck that will serve NIU students and the community and feature dishes from around the globe, reflecting NIU’s diverse student population. Flower said the food truck will be a revenue-generating operation to help keep Edible Campus economically sustainable.
“The goal is to take into consideration the multicultural nature of our student body,” he said. “There are so many great vegan or vegetarian dishes that represent all of the cultures on campus and are amazing. Not only will we be creating great food, but we will also be creating a sense of belonging for those students.”
Cotsones said Edible Campus represents the very best type of community engagement.
“Multiple stakeholders from the university and community are united in co-creating solutions for addressing food insecurity, advancing sustainability goals, and creating a healthy local foods culture. We’ve seen that one success begets another success, as partners come on board and are inspired to bring another impactful element to the project.
Edible Campus is part of classes, service projects, and has inspired a growing network of volunteers who are working, learning and making a difference together.”
Cotsones added, “Attracting the attention, collaboration and resources of ComEd and EPRI has expanded the project beyond the boundaries of northern Illinois to make Edible Campus part of a much larger regional initiative and a wonderful initial food systems innovation and engagement project for the Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability NICCS.”
Flower said the Edible Campus program demonstrates NIU’s success in advancing a collaborative vision around sustainability and equitable food systems while feeding the university’s hunger for research.
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