Bonner students and staff posing with the new Bonner Demonstration Garden

Did you  know a 2,000 square foot community garden exists on campus?

Located off Metzger Drive between the two lakes (across  the Forcina Hall parking garage), this garden was collaboratively designed and built by a unique partnership.  It included Bonner students and staff,  TCNJ professors (Janet Gray and Janet Morrisson) and their classes, facilities staff (Ed Gruber and Curt Heuring), non profit colleagues (Meredith Taylor, Neil Hartman, and Youthbuild

participants) from Isles Inc., and first year CEL I (community engaged learning) students interested in environmental issues.

In an effort to benefit the local community, all harvests of the garden are donated to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, so that patrons there can enjoy fresh produce that was grown just minutes away.   In an effort to teach inner city kids about the environment, the garden has also become an outdoor learning lab.  Students from Bonner’s main educational site–the Hedgepeth-Williams (k-8) school in Trenton have learned and served at this site.  It has also become a community-building space–as members of the TCNJ community now have another  place to interact and get to know each other.

The garden is regularly maintained by the Bonner Scholars Environmental Team and a team of student, faculty and staff volunteers.  To volunteer, please contact Erica Hernandez at hernane3@tcnj.edu.

TCNJ students are also encouraged to learn more about the Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Concentration.

Click here to learn more about the garden and to follow it as it grows!

Bonner Scholar Kara Ukaegbu '13 participates in Earth Day at TCNJ by working in the Demonstration Garden.