Founded by University of Minnesota Rochester Network and Media Specialist Kim Sin in 2019, the Village Community Garden and Learning Center (VCGLC) is a space where Rochester community groups can grow their own food while creating cross-cultural connections and experiences.
VCGLC maintains four Rochester sites that support more than 120 families and provide the UMR Student Food Pantry with thirty to fifty pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables each week. University students like recent graduate Hannah Rydel have learned about community-University partnership by participating in research and learning at VCGLC through CLI 2522: Community Collaborative, a course taught by Assistant Professor at the Center for Learning Innovation Angie Mejia. Mejia and Rydel recently co-authored a People’s Food Co-op Community Fund Grant to gain support for a project that will pair K-12 students with University CoLab students in an exploration of the environmental effects of human consumption patterns. The grant will pay for materials to build and test environmental restraints that will be used by VCGLC’s growers.
“In the span of two years, VCGLC has increased access to fresh, healthy, and culturally relevant foods for Rochester communities that currently have limited food access,” said Mejia, who continues to serve the University of Minnesota Rochester as a key leader of community partnered projects. “I think it is important to add that at least 90% of those families served by The Village are from historically marginalized communities along race/ethnicity and other identities. The VCGLC is very unique in that community garden projects are often run by white gardeners who have recently moved into communities of color. The Garden is a model that centers knowledges and perspectives that are often lost in more mainstream community garden programs.”