The Edible Campus Program launched a student farm in February 2019 that allows students to learn and practice agricultural techniques that address social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability while at the same time supplying the Associated Students Food Bank with much-needed additional healthy produce. The Associated Students Department of Public Worms provides the core maintenance and operational support for the farm.

Please see below for maps and images of the proposed student farm.  Feedback and questions can be sent to Katie Maynard kmaynard@geog.ucsb.edu.   More information can also be found at these links:

 

What’s At the Farm?

The student farm boasts of many features, including many raised beds dedicated to the production of nutritious fruits and veggies, a permaculture forest, among other fantastic and expanding features. The produce grown at the farm is decided by participants of the Associated Students Food Bank as we wish to grow produce that students and faculty will enjoy. Along with providing the food bank with produce, we also want the farm to be an educational space for the community. We host many diverse communities at the farm, including the neighboring Orfalea Family Children’s center, UCSB students, and the surrounding community. We have installed a Weather Station, in partnership with Dr Chandra Krintz’s SmartFarm, which will increase production yields and efficiency on the farm by analyzing environmental variables. We are in the process of creating an edible permaculture forest that will mimic the diversity of a real forest, with varying plants of shapes and sizes. If you would like to volunteer or take a tour of the farm, please visit the UCSB Edible Campus Program  Facebook to see future events at the ECP Student Farm. 



Farm Location

The farm is located just to the North of the Orfalea Family Children’s Center at West Campus and will have an adjoining fence with the Children’s Center. The farm is also in close proximity to IV Elementary School, one of IV Youth Projects locations, the West Campus Student Family Housing and associated Community Garden, Coal Oil Point Reserve, and West Campus Point (UCSB faculty housing).

Children

The student farm is surrounded by new and expanding student and faculty housing.  The surrounding UCSB dorms and apartments houses 3,606 undergraduates, 592 families, and 102 faculty and their families will live in the West Campus region (pictured to the right).  This does not include the many students and faculty living at the west end of Isla Vista (the large light green box in the photo below).

Neighbor-Map

The current location is surrounded on three sides by roadway and on the fourth by the Orfalea Family Children’s Center. Please see the photograph below.

Map

Conceptual Design

Please see the preliminary conceptual design below from Landscape Designer Kim True of True Nature, Landscape Architecture.

You can also now download the 50% construction documents here.

Design