Student-run garden established in 2019
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Walk around campus on Thursdays at noon this summer and you’ll see a hive of activity on a small patch of land adjacent to the volleyball and basketball courts, which since 2019 has been home to the UMass Chan Community Garden.
MD and Ph.D. students Claire Branley, Emma Holt, and Michela Oster spent the third Thursday in July harvesting cucumbers and summer squash, picking flowers, and checking on the tomato and vegetable crop. dill. The garden gives student volunteers the opportunity to fight food insecurity and prevent chronic disease through food. What sprouted here goes to the Max Baker Resource Center, a confidential resource accessible to members of the UMass Chan community 24/7 via ID badge.
“I wanted to do medicine, but I also wanted to work on something that could prevent chronic disease at a population level. Food insecurity has become this thing for me,” said Branley, president of the UMass Chan Community Garden. “I hope that in my doctorate and in my future career, I can work on programs and interventions that allow people to eat healthy foods regularly and daily and that they don’t have to struggle with it.”
The UMass Chan Community Garden uses tools made from firearms surrendered through UMass Memorial Health’s Goods for Guns buyback program. Michael Hirsh, MD, professor of surgery and pediatrics and associate vice provost for wellness and health promotion at UMass Chan Medical School, founded the program in 2002. Dr. Hirsh is also the medical director of the Public Health from the Worcester Department of Health and Human Services. .
Related UMass Chan News Stories:Max Baker Resource Center Receives Major Stop & ShopPlanting Celebration Launches UMMS Max Baker Resource Center Student-Run Community Garden for Students Facing Food Insecurity Dedicated to UMMS
