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What began as a personal interest in growing plants and cooking, blossomed into a plant food growing initiative championed by, now graduated Environmental Life Sciences student Amelia Moise. With the guidance and leadership of Dr. Barb Vanderbeld and other professors in the SustainabilityAction initiative, Amelia and a small committee of students turned the Bioscience Complex’s hallways green with food plant gardens.

Using minimal resources including pots, shelves, and grow lights, the project successfully yielded all kinds of vegetable produce. Although harvests were modest, the initiative demonstrates that accessible, small-scale food growing by students is possible on campus. Most of the produce went to student volunteers and hallway passersby’s, with future hopes to contribute to charitable food support systems on campus like the PEACH Market. 

This approach to sustainability emphasizes low-barrier, local actions, demonstrating that meaningful change often starts small. “The global outlook is important,” says Amelia. “But it also needs to be paired with practical action on the ground.” 

She also highlights the vital role professors can play in strengthening grassroots initiatives like this foodplant garden. By offering access to space, sharing expertise, or simply encouraging student leadership, their support can be the difference between an idea that fades, or one that flourishes. As well, given that a student’s time at Queen’s is often quite limited, it is important that professors play a role in the continuation of projects such as these. 

She likens the spread of campus engagement to a chain reaction: when one student takes initiative, it empowers others to do the same, whether on campus or at home. Although Amelia is now graduated from Queen’s, this culture of collaboration and encouragement helps new initiatives take root and flourish year after year, and in this light, the foodplant project is sure to continue, in one form or another.