CCCG Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
August 28, 2019
Present: Alice Ammerman, Katelyn Ander, Carol Enarson, Joanna Lelekacs, Claire Lorch, Savannah Mercure, Arlene Medder, Kadejah Murray, Natalie Smith and Olivia Tseng
Introductions: Three new members have joined our advisory committee. Students, Olivia Tseng and Savannah Mercure will serve as our social media co-interns for this year. Kadejah Murray works at the Office of Faculty Governance and serves on the community service committee of the Employee Forum.
Updates: To save time, updates were sent out to all members in an email along with the agenda prior to the meeting.
Composting:
- Natalie shared data (our first!) on our composting operation. In the last year, 22 bins were taken from “active” to “black gold” and it took anywhere from 1-5 months, averaging 63 days from start to finish. She also noted that roughly half the bins were not being used at a given time.
- Given the information above and the fact that we currently have five enthusiastic compost co-managers, the committee agreed that the Garden will accept food scrap donations from two departments that have submitted a request to do so.
- Joanna suggested that we may want to present something at the next American Public Garden Association’s national meeting on our composting system.
- Olivia and Savannah agreed to publicize what we are doing composting-wise at the garden.
Name Change: Damon Waitt, Director of the NCBG has proposed that we change our name to the Carolina Community Garden. He says that it is easier to say and that we have become known as Carolina’s community garden.
- There was a mix reaction from the committee. Some liked the idea because we involve the local community and not just the campus community. Others were concerned that it could be a hassle making that change or that it could be confusing outside the UNC community because Carolina can mean South Carolina, etc.
- It was suggested that we consider slowly moving in that direction as we do new things.
- Claire will be sharing the committee’s thoughts with Damon who will make the final decision.
Nature RX: Claire and NCBG’s communications manager met with several Campus Health clinicians recently to discuss ways to promote the CCCG to patients that might benefit from volunteering at the garden. At least some of the primary care providers will be prescribing the CCCG as part of their treatment plans. Others may decide to bring a meditation group out to the garden. There are also plans to track patients that do come to the garden. (We will include “campus health” as an option when we ask volunteers to tell us how they heard about the garden on our Emergency Contact form).
- Joanna suggested that we could consider offering a mindful weeding class.
- Carol brought up that the labyrinth at the hospital is not all that private and that we could offer walking meditation through our beds that are currently labyrinth-like with the very tall okra plants.
- Alice mentioned that she is working with the medical school that has a growing concern about the mental health of their residents. Claire offered to meet with her med school contacts and see if they would want to do something similar to what is planned for Campus Health.
Ten Year Anniversary: CCCG’s ten-year anniversary will be in March. Claire described the program we did for our first-year anniversary which was held at the garden one afternoon. The chancellor spoke, along with folks from housekeeping, the Employee Forum Chair, Alice, John and Claire. We also had a brochure listing and thanking all of our campus and community partners and donors.
- The committee agreed that the purpose of the event was to promote the garden, to pause and celebrate, and to recognize and thank all of the people that helped to make it happen.
- There seemed to be consensus not to put on a big event (due to limited funds and staff), though a pop-up dinner was mentioned.
- It was suggested to consider a month of events that could include some mindful weeding along with an event similar to what we did for our first-year anniversary and our ribbon-cutting ceremony for the greenhouse several years ago.
- Carol suggested we look into getting funding from the State Credit Union and Olivia mentioned applying to Carolina Thrift.
Evaluation: Since we were short on time, a discussion of a proposed evaluation plan will be discussed at the next advisory committee meeting.
Upcoming Events:
- Aug 29 (5 -7 p.m.) – Sustainability Social, Union Art Gallery
- Sept 10 Workday and six additional workdays this fall – Circle K
- Sept 18 Workday – Tarheel Marching Band
- Sept 19 (9:30 a.m.– 10:45 a.m.) First Year Seminar Class
- Sept 19 (11:00 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.) Communications and Nonprofits Class
- Sept 23 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) SPH Student Organization and Activity Fair
- Oct 6 Workday – Student Government
- Oct 20 Workday – Orange/Durham Junior League
- Oct 29 Tour/Workday (3:30 – 5:00 p.m.) Kitchen Patrol