University of North Carolina, Wilmington
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Since 2012, UNCW’s sustainable community garden has served as a firsthand educational resource to students while providing produce to the local Food Bank. In 2014, UNCW worked in conjunction with the City of Wilmington Stormwater Services, Tidal Creek Coop, the Surfrider Foundation, NC State University and North Carolina Coastal Federation to make a new bioretention plan/rain garden. The Tidal Creek Rain Garden Project will reduce stormwater runoff between the Oleander Cinema parking lot and businesses next door. Students went out into the field to assess the site and work on the project

Feast Down East is a grass-roots, non-profit organization. It is a result of the Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems (SENCFS) Program, which was co-founded in 2006 by Leslie Hossfeld, Public Sociology Program, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and Mac Legerton, Center for Community Action in Lumberton. The project started as an economic and community development initiative in response to the massive job loss and high poverty in Southeastern North Carolina. It has developed into a partnership of public (including UNCW) and private institutions and agencies among eleven counties along and adjoining the I-74 corridor east of I-95. This region is the most ethnically diverse region in North Carolina and in Rural America; and it is also one of the three major regions of persistent poverty in North Carolina. Feast Down East also includes both rural and urban counties in order to maximize market opportunities and profits for farmers. The SENCFS Program creates projects that provide the link between farmer and buyer, such as the Farm-to-Chef Program, where farmers and chefs create working relationships with one another; the SENC Foods Processing and Distribution Program that delivers farm products to restaurants, grocers, schools and hospitals; the Farm-to-School Program that links farmers to schools; and the Feast Down East "Buy Local" campaign, which encourages people to buy locally produced foods. UNCW is the lead agency of the Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems Program. Committees are formed, as needed, around critical needs and issues identified by the SENCFS Program. UNCW also supports the partnership by buying food sourced by Feast Down East in addition to hosting their regional conference.