By Vivian Le
Fresh produce can be difficult to come by for students on a college budget. The lack of grocery stores near campus can contribute to poor nutrition among students. However, University of Iowa student leaders hope to encourage healthy eating and nutritional education with a campus produce cart, which will return today.
“Fresh produce is important to students on campus because it promotes a healthy lifestyle and teaches students about the importance of local, organic food,” said UI Gardeners Co-President Sophia Coker Gunnink.
Last month, the UI Gardeners teamed up with the Food Pantry at Iowa and UI Student Government to host the first campus produce cart. The cart offered fresh produce for free one afternoon in September. The cart was a proven success with 80 to 100 pounds of produce to distribute.
Coker Gunnink said within the first 30 minutes of opening, 75 percent of all the produce offered was picked up by students.
“People lined up and were really into it,” she said. “It was gone by the end, which is really exciting because I didn’t expect people to line up for fresh produce.”
Today, the student organizations will host another cart, the final one of the semester in Hubbard Park between 1 and 3 p.m. before going into the winter season and marking the end of the growing season.
UI Gardeners has closed down the gardens for the season so most of the produce offered today will be from community-supported agriculture boxes, which are provided by local farmers.
Coker Gunnink said the gardening group is working on setting up a hydroponic system so it can continue to grow produce in the winter and be ready to set up another produce cart late winter or early spring of next semester. A hydroponic system can grow produce without soil; the UI Gardeners has a system in the greenhouse in Biology Building East.
“Our main contribution [for the produce cart] was actually just providing space for the produce to be stored,” the Food Pantry Co-Director Benjamin Marks said. [Disclosure: Marks previously worked as a Metro editor at the DI.]
The pantry has been collecting produce from farmers and are also staffing the volunteers in preparation for the event today.
Overall, organizers hope the event will promote healthy habits and even hunger awareness on campus.
“The food produce cart is also up while the pantry is up, so we kind of use it as a referral place as well,” said Sydney Hofferber, the Food Pantry volunteer coordinator. “So if people are using the produce cart to supplement their own groceries, then we want to let them know that there is another more service that is regular.”
The event today will be available to all students. Students who are in need of food assistance can also use the pantry year-round for their needs.
“I think it’s really exciting that the Food Pantry at Iowa and UI Gardeners are teaming up on this. I think it’s a necessary thing to have,” Coker Gunnink said. “It’s awesome the students are really interested in having local produce, and I hope we can continue to provide that for them.”
