Auburn University is home to a community garden that donates produce to the Food Bank of East Alabama and its community market.
Auburn students and local residents help maintain the garden to be able to give back to their community.
Zack Ogles, who manages the garden, said they supplied 8,000 pounds of produce to the food bank this past year.
Evie Smith, an Auburn University student who has been an intern at the garden for the past two-and-a-half years, helps plan what will be planted in the garden, maintains jobs like fertilization, staking tomatoes and also planting and harvesting.
“I would love to see our volunteer base grow at the garden so that we can help more people learn about food production and give back to our community,” Smith said. “I think that those who have worked with us have been inspired, and I certainty hope more will be.”
Callan Freese, a senior at the University whose job entails fertilizing crops, weeding, harvesting, and spraying with pesticides and herbicides, said the goal is to help the community eat well and provide good food for families in our community.
“I hope that the garden will be a place where students and members of the community can come together to learn about sustainable agriculture and take that information back home to teach others,” Freese said. “I love the education aspect of the garden. Once you can get people interested in our mission they can tell their friends and family, and hopefully one day we can generate a garden that feeds all of Auburn and Opelika.”
Freese said the garden has taught him how to be a hard worker, and he loves being able to supply food to people in the community that need it most.
“Being able to see the reactions of the people who receive our donations has been so inspiring,” Freese said.
Barnett Skelton, a university student and volunteer at the garden, believes the garden teaches people that anyone at any given level of life is capable of giving back.
“I know that the smallest things can make the greatest impact for those who need it,” Skelton said. “The people at the garden have welcomed me with open arms, and they are willing to do the same for anyone else.”
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