WVU Campus Food Garden

Let's Grow Mountaineers!

Our Vision: To end food insecurity in Central Appalachia

Our Mission: To empower the WVU Community and all West Virginians to end food insecurity through garden-based education, advocacy for food justice, and community engagement.

Our intercollegiate organization aims to join community forces in food justice-minded sustainable agriculture to accomplish three objectives:

1. Germinate. We grow nutritious food.  We build gardens and urban agriculture centers on campus and in our communities to empower gardeners, small farms, and urban farmers to reclaim a prominent place in local food systems. Everything we grow is donated to or is used to benefit those facing food insecurity. Revitalizing our local food economies and feeding those experiencing hunger through growing vegetables and fruits is at the center of everything we do.  
2. Educate. Sustainable agriculture, research, and public policy education is at the center of our mission. We model, promote and educate the community about sustainable local food systems, particularly as it relates to urban, suburban, and small space environments.  We also promote the new and existing work of small farms and their farmers. Through education, we inspire communities to make liberated choices and create generational change regarding their food sources. We provide vibrant learning environments at WVU and within its surrounding communities on food insecurity, food gardens and produce preservation, sustainability, biodiversity, plant and soil health, and land stewardship. We develop new tools and link communities to existing resources that will create sustainable, accessible, and local food.  
3. Advocate. Food is a human right and the most basic of needs. We amplify community voices and grow grassroots power.  We are social justice and food access advocates and act with intention to eradicate systems and policies that create barriers to equitable food access in our communities.  We are building a movement that brings together communities, volunteers, advocates, educators, service organizations, and donors to promote real change. We work across systems within our networks to break down barriers that prevent equal access to food.  By empowering the community in food sovereignty, we aid in creating more resilient communities that will feed everyone—including their most vulnerable members.  

We've grown over 10,000 lbs of fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs for local food pantries, and we need your help growing our biggest garden yet!

We use garden-based learning to teach sustainability and promote local food economies. We utilize urban-centered and emerging agricultural methods to grow produce for our local food pantries.

We provide free or low cost educational programming on a variety of food-focused topics, including gardening, foraging, and food insecurity. One of our biggest goals is to get people gardening or farming in their own settings and encourage the education of more local food producers. 

Most importantly, we advocate for change in our community through networking with other social justice organizations, and help promote their research and policy needs.

Join us in growing into better Mountaineers as we grow better food for ourselves and our community.