Addressing Food Insecurity - Westside Comm. Garden

From its visioning process in 2023-24, which including gathering data on needs in our community, the Rotary Club of Auburn NY has identified the need for greater food security as one of its targeted focus areas for service.  The club has reached out to and is partnering with the Westside Community Garden, sponsored by the Auburn Beautification Commission, to double its size from its current 2,000 sq. ft. garden area to 4,000 sq. ft.  The expanded area will create a "teaching garden" where effective farming techniques can be learned and shared, with produce being donated to local food pantries.  Multiple beneficial outcomes will be achieved from the expansion, including increasing access to fresh and nutritious vegetables by local families and increasing self-sufficiency from producing ones own food.  In this initial EPIC project, club members and non-member volunteers will prepare and mulch walking paths delineating garden plots, erect posts and fencing to protect gardens from critter intrusion, and if time permits additional work on the garden plots in the expanded area.