Professor Uses Sustainable Garden to Help Feed the Hungry
August 24, 2020
Professor Michael Veracka
Professor Michael Veracka, Department of Urban Horticulture and Design, is a man on a mission, and that mission is to help feed the LI hungry with green beans grown at the Sustainable Garden.
“Earlier this month I harvested the first crop of beans, and delivered six bushels to Island Harvest,” says Professor Veracka. “I’m anticipating there will be several more waves of crops to be harvested before the end of the month. We all have the power to make a difference.”
The project was possible because Professor Veracka, a farmer before he joined the FSC faculty in 2006, was driven to preserve the garden.
“I was mindful that the past nine years of implementing the mission and vision of the Sustainable Garden was in great danger of being lost. All gardens and landscapes require constant dedicated care and a yearly plan of action, or they will revert to a pile of weeds. So in early April, I lobbied my department chair [Dr. Jonathan Lehrer] and the FSC administration, to grant me essential-worker status so I could begin working in the Sustainable Garden. By mid-April I began working one day a week.”
Planting began in early June, when out of his own pocket Professor Veracka bought three pounds of green-bean seed. He spent June and July watering, cultivating, and caring for the crop.
“I have long sought to reincorporate food growing training – a founding principle of the College – into our present curriculum. With the pandemic ongoing, with no end in sight, I plan to reorganize the fall semester course HOR 340/The Sustainable Garden, so that students will learn best practices for growing a portion of their own food, and actually plant their own plots within the Sustainable Garden.”
With that as a goal, you can expect to find Professor Veracka and his students delivering more bushels of vegetables to Island Harvest, to help keep the hungry from going without.
