Building community in Camden—one garden bed at a time

A community garden grows in Camden…thanks to the dogged determination of a group of medical school students, a Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) employee, and some generous friends.

CMSRU students who volunteer at the Cooper Sprouts Community Garden recently completed a major overhaul of the urban space to ensure its sustainability for years to come. They did so through thoughtful planning, physical labor, and some much-needed assistance from Dennis Collins, CMSRU’s Director of Facilities, his staff, and his connections in the construction and trades industry.

According to second-year medical student Christopher Smith, the community garden, once a vacant corner lot in the middle of the Cooper Plaza neighborhood, had been somewhat successful for the past couple of years, but the design was not ideal.

“Planting beds consisted of a few inches of soil on top of concrete -- conditions ripe for root rot and other gardening nightmares,” he explained.  “It was amazing that things still grew. The garden provided a variety of fresh produce for residents in this neighborhood throughout the summer, fall and winter.”

Smith and classmates Simon Wallace and Alexandra Vrancik coordinate the dozen CMSRU volunteers who tend the garden alongside neighborhood residents, including longtime community leader and garden founder Sheila Roberts.

Smith and his classmates proposed upgrading the design of the garden to ensure its long-term survival. They learned that raised beds would be beneficial for the garden as they would provide optimal planting depths and appropriate drainage for the crops. But, as full time medical students, acquiring the materials, tools and time needed to build, install and maintain these new beds would be a big challenge.

They turned to Jocelyn Mitchell-Williams, MD, PhD, Associate Dean for Diversity and Community Affairs, who advises them on service learning projects. She connected the students with Collins. Collins oversees all the major construction projects at the new and expanding medical school campus in Camden, as well as 20 employees in the facilities department, several of whom are experienced craftsmen. Collins’ own love of gardening and personal commitment to giving back to the Camden community piqued his interest in this project.

 “The students were correct. The garden was built on a concrete lot, so raised beds needed to be installed,” said Collins. “This was a fantastic project that I knew would resonate with our staff, as well as many of my contacts in the building trades.”

The facilities team was excited for the opportunity to teach the students how to build the new planting beds while also contributing to the school’s mission of giving back to the community.

First, materials were needed, so Collins reached out to local construction, landscaping and home improvement companies for donations of supplies and equipment.  In total, nine organizations donated money, equipment, supplies and tools worth over $3,600.

Recently, under the guidance of CMSRU’s carpenters and other facilities staff, the medical students built the new planting beds:  4-by-10-by-1-foot wooden frames designed to hold the soil and plantings of the Cooper Sprouts Community Garden for years to come.   A few days later, facilities staff delivered the new beds to the garden, where more than a dozen volunteers installed them on top of the dirt-covered concrete.

As the future physicians and other volunteers shoveled yards of fertile soil into the new beds to prepare them for spring planting, the students already were making plans for future improvement of the space: composting bins, new shade trees, maybe a garden mural and a few benches.

“Not only do we want this garden to be a great source of nutrition for the people of the neighborhood, we want it to be a green oasis where the community can come together and  spend time enjoying the beauty of nature,” added Smith.

The Cooper Sprouts Community Garden is just one of the many service learning projects in which CMSRU students have become involved since the first class arrived in 2012. CMSRU is proudly mission-driven, focused on developing highly skilled and socially conscious physician leaders who value a patient-centered, team approach to health care.

The curriculum includes 40 hours of service in Camden per student each academic year. During the 2013-’14 academic year, more than 5,000 service hours were completed by CMSRU’s 114 students.