FoodLab Starting New Community Garden Initiative at Stony Brook Southampton

This spring, FoodLab at Stony Brook Southampton is launching a new Community Garden, a welcoming campus space where students and local residents can cultivate not only fresh food, but also connection, purpose, and community well-being while giving back to others in need.

The new Community Garden is supported by a $2,400 Presidential Mini-Grant and a $50,000 New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Urban Farms and Community Gardens Grant. It is a collaboration between the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, Stony Brook Medicine, and the Office of Student Life - uniting food, health, and education in one vibrant space.

"With support from this funding, we can cultivate more than vegetables - we can cultivate belonging," said Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz, executive director, The FoodLab at Stony Brook Southampton. "These grants have made it possible to grow an ecosystem where wellness, education, and community are deeply rooted together. Through the shared act of growing and giving, we're reminded that food is one of the most powerful ways to care for each other."

The state grant was part of $2.5 million awarded to 51 organizations across the state through Round 3 of New York State's Urban Farms and Community Gardens Grant Program. It is designed to support community growing spaces and recognize their impact on local food resiliency and food security for New Yorkers.

In the garden, everyone has a role to play. Students will tend their own raised beds and work together in shared field plots where crops are chosen for their health-promoting qualities - vegetables rich in nutrients that support specific medical needs. These harvests will become "produce prescriptions," bundled through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program coordinated with the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center and distributed to local families facing food insecurity.

Located just behind the Carriage House, the garden will bloom into a welcoming gathering space filled with raised beds, fruit trees, berry bushes, and places to sit, reflect, and connect. It will host workshops, shared meals, and wellness events coordinated by Stony Brook Southampton Student Life that bring together students, faculty, and community members in the spirit of learning and giving.

For many students, this garden will be more than a project - it will be a place to find purpose and peace. Amid busy schedules and screens, tending to the earth offers a grounding reminder of what community truly means: caring for something beyond oneself.

At a time when over 42 million Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), initiatives like this show how small plots can make a big difference. Growing food becomes an act of resilience, one that nourishes both body and spirit.

"The FoodLab Community Garden reminds us that change doesn't always start in a laboratory or a lecture hall," said Carmack-Fayyaz. "Sometimes, it starts with a seed, a trowel, and a shared vision of a healthier, more connected world."