Mills College
IN-7: Community Garden

Mills Community Farm is a 2.5 acre working and teaching farm on the southwest side of the Mills College campus in East Oakland. The diversified farm is home to over 30, 80' beds of seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers, and a young orchard of over 60 varieties of fruit trees. We house three working beehives and plan on incorporating chickens in the near future. We propagate all of our seedlings in the on-site greenhouse, and harden them off outside before planting them in the fields. We use best practices in growing without use of pesticides, using Integrated Pest Management strategies such as growing native, flowering plants and other flowering perennials to attract beneficial insects, as well as crop rotation and biointensive planting of beds. These methods are combined with organic practices such as recycling garden nutrients through composting, building soil with organic fertilizers, and encouraging biological pest control by growing a diversity of plants. Although we are not certified organic, we align our practices with the regenerative pursuit of building soil fertility and increasing organic matter with every wheelbarrow of compost delivered to newly planted beds.

The Farm's mission is to give students, faculty, staff of Mills College, as well as local community members a hands-on education of various methods of small scale, ecological farming and its crucial connection to issues that span the social, ecological, and sustainable terrain, especially as we grapple with the challenges of human-made climate breakdown. The Farm strives to be an interdisciplinary space supporting the academic and non-academic values of liberal arts education, and uplifting the Mills vision of creating a more socially and ecologically just society for all.

We are currently running a weekly CSA box program of seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers from the farm. We also sell produce at a weekly Farmstand and sell to local restaurants. Recently we've been donating any extra produce to the Mills Pantry located on campus, as well as Oakland organizations such as the Mercy Brown Bag Food Program for Seniors. Each semester, students can take the Campus Farm Practicum class, which can also satisfy their Community Engagement Learning credits, work on the farm for pay, and attend guest lectures on beekeeping, herbalism, vermicomposting, and more. The Mills Community Farm not only provides locally grown food and medicine for students, faculty, staff and the Oakland community, but a place to learn about ecological horticulture and sustaining the land that feeds us.