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Edible Campus reports thousands engaged, requests $35,000 for 2025–26 garden operations
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Summary
Campus Edible Program presented an annual report to the Isla Vista CSD: program staff said they connected with thousands of students and community members, mobilized volunteers and asked the district to increase funding from $30,000 to $35,000 for the 2025–26 season to cover higher wages and utility costs.
Katie Maynard, director of student sustainability initiatives and advisor for the Edible Campus Program, presented the Isla Vista Community Garden annual report and a budget request to the board.
Maynard told the board the program works in partnership with the United Methodist Community Church, the Ivy Community Center and the Isla Vista Community Services District to operate two funded garden sites in Isla Vista (Methodist and Ivy Community Center) and to support other gardens on campus and in the neighborhood. "I feel very grateful to hold my current internship position because I feel like it has very meaningful impact on the community," intern Lucinda Zhang said during introductions.
Maynard reported the program’s metrics for the year: 6,949 students were reached through class announcements, the team engaged 3,415 community members through workshops, volunteer events and block parties, mobilized 1,070 volunteers, hosted 330 events, and identified 34 nonstudent community members reached via workshops (the presentation separated student contact numbers from nonstudent engagement).
Maynard described a weeklong community campaign backed by a Habitat for Humanity grant that included garden renovations, cleanup events with IV Beautiful and Adopt-a-Block, mural projects, compost infrastructure work with the Compost Collective and intergenerational events at Friendship Manor; the campaign drew about 300 volunteers across the week and ran multiple events per day for roughly a 10-day window.
On the budget, Maynard told the board the program closed last year with staffing and supply expenditures near budgeted levels: staffing was budgeted at $21,120 and spending reported at $19,806 (pending May/June wages), supplies were budgeted at $8,080 and spent $8,349.36, and water was budgeted at $800 and spent $1,094. For 2025–26 the program requested $35,000 from the district (the current appropriation is $30,000). Maynard said the request is driven by minimum-wage increases and some revised job descriptions that raised projected hourly wages, not by increasing intern hours: the program plans to retain four interns at 10 hours per week across 12 months.
Maynard answered director questions about which sites the district funds (the district funds Methodist and Ivy Community Center sites; Saint Michael’s is funded from other sources) and about relationships with other local garden groups. On the Compost Collective, Maynard said the program previously had free access to compost but that current compost-collection fees are higher than purchasing compost commercially; as a result, the program does not currently use that product.
Board members praised the program’s volunteer engagement and mental-health connections; one board member asked about signage or wayfinding to better inform residents that gardens are communal and open to harvest. Maynard said many plots already have painted signage and plant labels and noted the program is open to more explanatory signage.
The presentation did not include a formal district vote; the board discussed the request and asked staff to consider it in the ongoing district budget process.
