Portland Community College
IN-24: Innovation A

PCC Rock Creek campus created an innovative program to aid students who go hungry on campus and promote food security. Half of the campus student population receives financial aid and recent college-wide surveys found that food insecurity is a rampant concern among students. To address food insecurity on campus, Learning Garden staff partnered with campus Dining Services and the Women’s Resource Center’s student food pantry to make donations, provide a weekly campus market that accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and established volunteer work opportunities for a food incentive program. The garden’s work-for-food program encourages student volunteers, who receive $5 per hour of work to buy fresh food or flowers from the learning garden at the weekly market, aka Portlandia Farmstandia. Further, through the Rock Creek Learning Garden, college resources and AmeriCorps members, staff were able to increase access to fresh, healthy, sustainably grown food using hands-on learning opportunities, implementing incentive-based programs and using the space to teach sustainable farming practices. Providing students access and the know-how to grow their own food helps address food insecurity at the root cause. These innovative practices resulted in PCC Rock Creek being awarded the 2015 AASHE Sustainability Award for aiding students who go hungry at the college’s Rock Creek Campus.