Hi Jen,

Thanks for the post! Have you approached your campus about becoming an AASHE member? We have a few member-only resources that may be helpful - one is a list of campus organic gardens from around the US and the other is list of campus supported agriculture projects and student farms. These are available here - http://www.aashe.org/resources/co-curricular_education.php

Best,

Niles

We don't have a business plan, but I can explain some expenses.  The main expense has been a summer internship of $500-$1,000 for someone to maintain the gardens (weeding, pest patrol, watering, mowing the grounds, composting, keeping tool/supply shed tidy).  This year I asked the intern to help with some other campus gardens as the student organic garden did not need much watering.   She organized a monthly work party, and also worked on getting club status so that some student fee funding could be procured.   

We have seen a lot of donations for tools and materials, and our grounds staff have been great partners when we need tools, materials (e.g. some random assorted pavers to use as plot markers), and expertise (e.g. weed control).  Groundskeeping is willing to do a certain amount of the work as maintenance, equivalent for what they would expect to do for any other landscaping on the campus.  Our county extension agent has also been by to give advice. 

Part of our student gardens are native plants used in genetics research projects, which were set up and fenced using our in-house small grants for research and small grants for sustainability.

 Hi Jen,

I actually do have a proposal you can look at from Messiah College. I was part of starting a garden there and some of my fellow students wrote up a plan that I would be happy to share with you. E-mail me at gretchen@renewingcreation.org and I'll send it to you.

Gretchen

Our campus organic gardens were created about 10 years ago by a biology professor to serve as lab space for some of his courses. They were supported largely through course fees, student lab time, and volunteerism and operated on a shoestring until this past spring when Dr. Montague retired.

One of his teaching assistants, Alex P., has been the de facto student gardens coordinator for the past several years. She has kept the gardens going in the off-semester periods, recruiting volunteers, and doing a lot of the actual work, too. After Dr. Montague retired on fairly short notice, another former TA  was able to step in and teach the summer organic gardening course. Between the two of them, the gardens project survived the loss of its most avid champion and organizer. The Biology Department has now committed to offering the gardening course every year and supporting the gardens as lab space, even though its primary focus is cell and molecular biology and the university does not have an agriculture program. Several other departments are also interested in supporting the gardens, and we are in the process of creating a longer-term administrative framework for them right now.

Alex is currently completing a masters degree that integrates business and sustainability, and her final project happens to be a business plan for the gardens which will inform the larger effort to continue the gardens project into the future. I am her internship project coordinator. She is just writing the final report now, and it should be complete by the end of the month. Once it is done, I am sure she'd be happy to share it. Email me at jen.colby@utah.edu and I'll send it to you.