Wichita State’s Green Group, a student organization that began 10 years ago, has cultivated an on-campus community garden on the northeast side of Ahlberg Hall since March 2020.
Green Group President Sean Wentling said many students don’t know the garden exists, limiting participation with the garden.
“The one issue we have is making sure that there are enough students who are able to help out with the community garden and that there is enough attention to the community garden in the first place,” Wentling said.
In the interest of making it more accessible to students, Student Body President Kylee Hower, Vice President Matthew Phan and Green Group decided to move the community garden to the east side of the Rhatigan Student Center which sees massive foot traffic.
“Last year it was mainly the president of Green Group and a couple other members and (First Gentleman) Rick Case maintaining it,” Phan said. “So we wanted it to be a little more public, a little easier for students to see it.”
They started the move this fall, with help from WSU’s landscaping team.
“We’re putting together these ledge stone patios on both ends that will look really nice, and we need to go in and clear out an area so that they can have some fruit trees in the back,” arborist for WSU landscaping Cody Headrick said. “So most of what we are doing is just prepping the area for them to come and move in and make it look really nice.”
Caitlin Nolen is a student advocacy coordinator for Student Engagement and Belonging and oversees the Shocker Support Locker. She said the support locker currently struggles with maintaining produce.
With the new garden, students can take whatever is available at the site, while leftover produce will be housed at the Shocker Support Locker in the Shocker Success Center, in front of the garden’s new location.
“The locker has its own hours, so when we close, there is no access to get in there,” Nolen said. “Now, if there’s something growing, you can walk up any time of the day, 24 hours, and go grab something.”
People involved with the project hope to have fresh produce available for students by the spring.
