On a recent cool Friday afternoon just south of campus, a group of students from UMD’s College Park Scholars and College of Arts and Humanities came together to usher in spring with a timely volunteer project.
The Hyattsville Food Forest on Emerson Street is less than an acre, but it contains dozens of edible species in an agricultural project designed to be largely self-sustaining - a permaculture that enriches both ecology and community in this working-class neighborhood near the Anacostia River.
For three years, the Global FEWture Alliance (GFA), a UMD Grand Challenges project led by the School of Public Health, has partnered with the city of Hyattsville to support the maintenance and development of its food forests. Part of that work has involved coordinating with student groups to help weed, prune, plant, harvest, water and learn from the curated menagerie of plants that call the food forest home.
On that Friday in early March, City Arborist Dawn Taft, College Park Scholars faculty member Dani Moore, and GFA Communications Director Heidi Scott oversaw the installation of a new feature: a Little Free Library that houses a Resource and Recipe Guide for visitors to the food forest. The guide was created by a group of students in Scott’s class Mutualist: Redesigning Human-Earth Relations.
The Guide has several elements: Watercolor illustrations of forest fruits by sophomore history major Patty Dongarra; principles of the honorable harvest of common resources, inspired by Indigenous teachings and written by freshman dance major Taraja Samuel; a series of easy recipes including the edible plants in the forest, written by freshman history major Alexis Tokos and sophomore English major Jacob Ly.
The work will live in a mini-library box designed and crafted by sophomore philosophy and political economy major Evan Abraham. His diminutive work of architecture has a vaulted black roof, and a bright red door frame.
“This project gave me the opportunity to act on the food forest's core value as a community resource for education. By installing the Little Free Library, I hope its neighbors can learn more about this space through our resource guide, and in doing so, help ensure the forest’s sustainable use and longevity,” said Abraham.
As the College Park Scholars students removed invasive bulbs, students in the Mutualist class planted the little free library in wet concrete, where it will anchor the cultural values and possibilities of this urban socio-ecological innovation. Global FEWture Alliance will continue to work with Hyattsville in initiatives for the food forest to build rainwater harvesting and solar power on site.
“I hope this project makes what is already such a valuable community resource feel accessible,” Dongarra said of the day’s work in the food forest. “It is an honor to contribute to the community’s great work.”
— Heidi Scott, ‘09