Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 69.61
Liaison Tina Woolston
Submission Date Nov. 2, 2022

STARS v2.2

Tufts University
IN-7: Community Garden

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 John McDonald
Professor of Music
Granoff Music Center, Tufts University
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

A brief description of the institution’s community garden:
Tufts hosts one of Somerville's community gardens. It is solely utilized by Somerville residents.

We have 29 plots tended by individuals, couples, and families. Given the family involvement, this adds up to close to 50 active gardeners each season. There is interaction with/inclusion of Tufts employees who are Somerville residents (through the waitlist process; Martha Kelehan, Assistant Director of Tisch Library and her family are current gardeners, in addition to my wife and me), and a healthy collaborative relationship with the Tufts Pollinator Initiative. In fact:

- we have hosted both the Tufts Pollinator Initiative and a Tufts Urban Agriculture class for lecture/explorations in the last two years, and have previously hosted Tufts students doing fieldwork for their botany/ecology research

- we have a substantial history of numbering Tufts students, faculty, and employees among our gardeners (e.g. Andy Spalaris, longtime cook at Tufts Dining, Emma Schneider, literature doctoral student, and Grace Talusan, creative writing faculty)

- during the gardening season we welcome interested visitors to the garden, including Tufts students. We'd be happy to welcome you and/or others involved in the Tufts Sustainability Program!

- we have a good relationship with the neighboring student-run garden

Website URL where information about the community garden is available:

Optional Fields

Estimated number of individuals that use the institution’s community garden annually:
50

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
John McDonald, Composer and Pianist
Professor of Music, Tufts University

Peter Heller

both are members of the coordinating committee for the garden

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.