Campus Grow welcomes new members with pot painting party
Students paint flower pots during the Campus Grow event on Feb. 1 in Brooks Hall.
Student group Campus Grow welcomed new members with a pot painting party on Feb. 1 in Brooks Hall.
Campus Grow is a student club that strives to offer students healthy and sustainable alternatives to industrial food by providing access to fresh local food and educational gardening opportunities.
"Tonight we're basically just welcoming new members and getting to know them," Campus Grow's treasurer Jennifer Bautista said. “Since it’s too cold and dark to go outside, we’re just painting pots, and we’ll plant in them at our next meeting.”
For $3, attendees could paint Terra Cotta pots and get to know other members of the group. Chesterfield freshman Lauren Ulrich had never been to a meeting before the pot painting party.
“I’d never heard of (Campus Grow) until I saw a post on Facebook,” Ulrich said as she painted her pot. “I’ll definitely come back next time.”
During the warmer months, Campus Grow’s main project is their community garden, located by Theunissen Stadium, in which they plant a variety of different plants and vegetables. There are over 50 plots available for rent, as well as a “Plant a Row for the Hungry” plot, and a children’s garden.
“After spring break, we really want to focus on the garden,” Bautista said. “We have to start from scratch, building the plots and walkways and all that stuff.”
When it’s too cold for them to work outside, the group spends time fundraising to raise the money for their garden. Last semester, the group planted and sold succulents with a great turnout, said secretary Malorie Most.
“We’re going to need a lot of help rebuilding the garden in the spring,” Most said. “So if anyone needs volunteer hours, they should for sure come help.”
Most said the group plans to do another plant sale this semester, “and hopefully a bake sale.”
Campus Grow meets biweekly on Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Brooks 102.
