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Harper Grows Community Garden

Harper Grows is a community garden located at the intersection of the Ring Road and Kris Howard Drive on Harper’s Main campus. The garden consists of six raised beds that were installed to alleviate food insecurity by producing fresh, organic produce for the campus pantry in Hawks Care Resource Center.

The garden beds offer the following to the Harper community: 

• Vegetables and herbs to be donated to Hawks Care
• Learning opportunities for classes
• Partnerships with internal and external organizations

How We Started

Harper Grows is an initiative that began in spring 2024 by Julie Ellefson (Emeritus, Chemistry, pictured left), Pearl Ratunil (English, pictured in the middle), and Ginger McHugh-Kurtz (Biology, pictured right). This community of faculty and staff gardeners and garden advocates grew fresh produce in their home gardens and donated their surplus produce to the Campus Pantry in the Hawks Care Resource Center.

Harper Grows estimated that they grew and donated roughly 100 pounds of fresh produce in their first season of donations.

Donations included:

• Beet greens
• Tomatoes (3 kinds) and salsa fixings
• Swiss Chard
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Eggplant
• Fresh herbs
• Dinosaur Kale
• Cucumbers grown on-campus by the Environmental Club on raised beds built by students from the learning community “Living Sustainable Lives" taught by John Garcia (Philosophy) and Julie Ellefson in spring 2023. ​

Hawks Care Coordinator Katie Butera reports, "The students express shock and joy that the faculty and staff have grown this for them. Access to fresh and frozen foods within our campus pantry has increased the weekly offerings we carry while giving us the opportunity to gather feedback from our student clients on preferences and popular items.”

In January 2025, Harper Grows, led by Ginger, Julie and Pearl, collaborated on a proposal for a community garden located on Harper’s main campus that would expand the scope of Harper Grows to include curricular opportunities for students to learn more about local food production.

In addition, the Harper Grows Community of Practice (CoP) was established through the Academy for Teaching Excellence to create curriculum that would support college learning outcomes for sustainability and equity. Their efforts were supported by a partnership with the University of Illinois Extension, who led a series of training courses on community garden installation and management. Members of Harper Grows and the Harper Grows Community of Practice attended three sessions to develop the necessary expertise to install the garden.

In March 2025, the Executive Cabinet approved a proposal to install a community garden on the main campus. On April 11, 2025, at the 16th Annual International Education Summit called “Building Sustainable Communities through Global Perspectives,” Harper Grows officially launched the Harper Grows Community Garden.

Harper faculty and student assemble raised garden beds for Harper’s first community garden (April 2025).

How You Can Help

Harper Grows is always looking for volunteers to assist with planting, watering, maintenance and harvest. Departments can host a bed for a course or activity, and organizations can partner with Harper Grows to support the garden or address food insecurity. Learn more and volunteer.​

For more information, please email harpergrows@harpercollege.edu.

Donate some of your harvest or fresh produce to Hawks Care!​

​Here are some helpful tips for donating:

• Donate early in the week
• Hawks Care has bags available for dividing produce
• For greens that wilt easily, place their stems in a container with a few inches of water and cover with a damp cloth or paper towel.
• Donating something unusual like say, purslane (aka verdolaga) or lambs quarters? Consider including a short, easy recipe for your favorite dish. You can email it to hawkscare@harpercollege.edu​, and the great staff there will make it available.
• Flowers are welcome, too!
• Hawks Care is located in Building D, Room D204​

Questions about donating fresh produce? Contact hawkscare@harpercollege.edu.