Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 68.64
Liaison Kimberly Post
Submission Date Feb. 22, 2022

STARS v2.2

Saint Joseph's College - ME
IN-7: Community Garden

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Kimberly Post
Program Director
Leadership Sustainable Communities
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A brief description of the institution’s community garden:

The garden began as an idea from the CASE Scholars when they researched the decline of pollinators in Maine for their presentation at the Terra Matters Climate Summit, held at USM in 2018. With donations, multiple mini-grants, a faculty grant, support from Facilities, and students and faculty from Education, Communications, and Sciences, the Pollinator Garden in now a part of our College campus and open to community members. The space offers education talks for our campus community and visitors alike, and all share in planting, tending, and harvesting. Additionally there is a kitchen garden bed that supplies our food service during the summer/fall.

CASE Scholar Caleb Gravel ’19 helped the College through the application process to qualify us as “bee friendly,” and now the College is the 73rd educational institution in the nation and the first in Maine to be certified as one of the affiliates of the Bee Campus USA program. This is a certification program that seeks to stabilize campus landscapes as ideal habitats for pollinators such as bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and more. The garden is tended by Professor Emeritus and Master Gardener Sue Kelly and campus community volunteers. As this “living laboratory” continues to develop, it will serve as a sustainability makerspace for research, innovation, and a beautiful place to visit to learn about the vital role of pollinators in our local food systems.


Website URL where information about the community garden is available:
Estimated number of individuals that use the institution’s community garden annually:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.