Dear Friend of the UCF Arboretum,

I am thrilled to tell you that the UCFArboretum community garden is growing! Established in 2009, the garden added a new and exciting chapter to the Arboretum’s history. Students are hungry—literally for fresh produce, but also for the chance to get their hands dirty, and for the positive experience of coming together to grow their own food. —oOur community garden helps feed that hunger.

The garden has expanded in size, student involvement, and impact. Over the lpast three3 years we have more than doubled volunteering, to over 7,000 hours and over 700 students. last year. Mostvolunteers help maintain our community garden. In addition, we have created leadership opportunities by offering 5-6[AH1] internships every semester for undergraduate students to help lead and coordinate volunteer activities.

Many of today’s students face food insecurity and have to make a decision between paying for credit hours and rent or paying for nutritious food. The Arboretum has joined forces with UCF Wellness and Health Promotions Servicesto create Fresh U, a program that donates fresh local produce to the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, where students in need can obtain free food.[AH2]

In light of the community garden’s remarkable success, we are expanding it in 2018. We are moving it to a more permanent location near our newly-constructed greenhouse,and expanding it to 0.2 acres. We also have also added honey bee hives, which provide new hands-on educational experience for students.

I would like to be able to tell you that the success and expansion of our program has been matched by a commensurate increase in funding for the Arboretum, but that is not the case. In line with other programs at the university, our operation budget has been cut twice in the lpast five5 years, and we struggle to come up with funding to support our basic operations.

The community garden needs your financial support. The garden move will require a new $8,000 deer fence and $2,500 irrigation system. The required fence for our campus apiary will cost $2,600. We purchase five5 loads of potting soil per year at $300 per load, and two loads of mushroom compost at $500 per load. Our three bee hives cost nearly $400 each, and we plan to add two more in the coming year. Fruit trees for our new orchard will cost anywhere from $50-$100 eachapiece, and we spend hundreds of dollars per year replacing basic gardening tools, gloves and supplies.

A suggestion to cut down on length:

The community garden needs your financial support. In order to expand we will need:

  • $8,000 for a deer fence
  • $2,500 for an irrigation system
  • $2,600 for a required apiary fence
  • $1,500 worth of potting soil
  • $1,000 worth of mushroom compost
  • $2,000 for beehives

Those are preliminary costs. Fruit trees for our new orchard will cost anywhere from $50-100 each, and we spend hundreds of dollars per year replacing basic gardening tools, gloves and supplies.

At this time of Thanksgiving, the Arboretum gives thanks for the unbelievable opportunity we have to create such positive experiences for our students. I hope you will be able to support our program by making a donation at whatever level you are capable of giving. We deeply value your support, and I can assure you that we will put any funds you donate to good use. Go Knights!

Sincerely,

Patrick Bohlen

Director UCF Arboretum

[AH1]Sounds wishy washy. I’d just say six.

[AH2]This seems more important so I would move it up.