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It was clear in the first days of Shelter-In-Place that food insecurity would be a front and center concern for many of our community partners. The decision to donate the produce grown from our urban gardens was clear, as working with our most vulnerable communities is core to our outreach. Bronco Urban Gardens’ educational programming pivoted with Resiliency Bags, by using The Forge-grown produce that would have gone to the farmstand here on campus. The BUG/Forge partnership has donated 2,000+ lbs of produce since mid-March 2020.  

Since that time, we have found new ways to build out student engagement in the process. BUG summer virtual interns played a key part in developing a distance-learning approach to garden education as we navigate these uncertain times, through developing a range of activities connecting families and children to the natural world around them. This summer, we transitioned from boxes to bags and they have contained rock collection kits (AKA upcycled egg cartons) to bird bingo cards. While food insecurity remains a deep concern, impacting households in ways difficult to calculate during this pandemic, the work of undergraduates this summer served to infuse a bit of light in a dark time.

Donations to our Resiliency Bags program can be made to the Bronco Urban Gardens on the Support Sustainability webpage. This holiday season (Dec. 1, 2020-Jan. 4, 2021), you can contribute to this local resiliency program by making a donation to help us buy pantry items to supplement the produce.

(This article has been updated to include holiday giving information.)