Susquehanna University’s Campus Garden is an amazing part of campus that many students don’t even know about! The campus garden is a student run, non-profit, volunteer organization located at the Center for Environmental Education and Research (CEER). The garden is entirely student run and relies on 6 student employees and volunteers. Each spring at the garden we plant around 20 different types of vegetables to grow during the summer season. All of the produce that is harvested from these plants is donated to locations in Selinsgrove and Sunbury that experience food insecurity such as the Selinsgrove Senior Center and Haven Ministries.
In my three years at Susquehanna, our campus garden has quickly become my second home-away-from-home and I spend much of my time there. I started at the job in September of my freshman year and have moved up the ranks. Now, I am one of two coordinators at the campus garden. We are in charge of making sure things run smoothly, making plans for what to plant in the coming years, and student outreach to help get students interested.
Famously, the campus garden is known for our succulent sales we have each year. Normally we do a succulent sale in both the fall and spring semesters, but this year we are only doing a sale in the spring because we have to replenish our succulent stock and get new succulents growing. Students love seeing us at tables in lower Deg selling our succulents for outrageously good prices.
The campus garden also holds events out at the garden itself. In the fall we often do an open house and a Fall Fest called Autumn Acres in conjunction with the Sustainability Committee. At the fall fest, we have pumpkin painting and carving, snacks, and we even have an apple cider press and make fresh apple cider!
The campus garden has volunteer hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. During this time students are able to come down to the garden and help us with various tasks to help the garden run efficiently and beautifully! You can also follow us on Instagram @susqugarden and like us on Facebook for updates about events we have going on or cool things happening at the garden!