Goodwin Community Garden Hits Donation Milestone

EAST HARTFORD—Since taking root this spring, the Goodwin Community Garden on Main Street has been a wonderful resource for the College’s food share program, and recently, the garden hit a donation milestone.

The garden – a collection of plots cultivated by local residents and workers at 349 and 351 Main Street – has donated more than 100 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to the Goodwin College Transitions Food Pantry. Transitions provides free food to students and their families in need, distributing discretely to eligible recipients.

Patricia, a Guyanese student at Goodwin, regularly gets vegetables from Transitions as the result of the partnership with the Community Garden. She wrote a testimonial crediting the program with helping her to cook healthy meals.

“I’m privileged to receive fresh vegetables provided by the Community Garden,” Patricia wrote. “This has been a great help to me. I cook every day and there are various ways one can come up with when preparing a meal or menu using fresh vegetables.”

Gardeners maintain 50 plots within the Goodwin Community Garden. While all the plots grow flowers, fruits, veggies, or other plants, two of the plots are maintained solely for the purpose of keeping the food pantry well stocked.

Goodwin General Education Professor Don DiGenova and East Hartford resident Roger Bousquet work together to cultivate the two plots. Tom Frigon, also an East Hartford resident, picks the vegetables from the gardens and brings them to Transitions. Both DiGenova and Frigon also donate produce grown in their respective home gardens to the food pantry.

The 100 pounds of produce has included green beans, sweet and hot peppers, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and more.

Goodwin opened the Community Garden in the Spring, converting the site of a former adult bookstore and converting it for use as a community resource. The College provides tools, soil, and compost, the latter courtesy of students in the Environmental Studies program.

Plots are maintained by employees of both Goodwin College and its neighbor Pratt and Whitney, which faces the garden from its Main Street entrance. Several plots are also maintained by East Hartford residents.