Waste Hater is a monthly series where we interview friends in the industry doing interesting and awesome work to reduce all kinds of waste, food or otherwise. This May, we spoke with Chasidy Fisher Hobbs, an environmental scientist and professor who created Argos’ Edible Campus at the University of West Florida.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but food does and can be equally as valuable. 

That’s essentially the idea behind a new project at the University of West Florida called Argos’ Edible Campus, one professor’s mission to counter food insecurity by planting produce…well…everywhere.

“Thinking about permaculture and edible landscapes is a no brainer to me,” Chasidy Fisher Hobbs, an environmental scientist and professor, tells Replate. “If a landowner, whether it’s a municipality or private landowner, is putting money into landscaping an area, why not get an added benefit of being able to produce food at the same time? It’s the same with me for native plants and pollinators. Edible landscapes can be beautiful too.”

Launched this spring, Argos' Edible Campus is an extension of the UWF community garden, which has been around for a little over five years. Hobbs and her seminar class students planted over 200 fruiting trees around campus with the aim of building a self-sustaining, low maintenance addition to the larger farm. Those plants include persimmons, blueberries, plums, apples, lots of citrus, and native fruits like mayhaws and paopus (similar to starfruit).

When ready for harvest, students will be able to freely pick and enjoy the produce at no charge.

“My goal is to get 1,000 fruiting trees and bushes in the next few years onto the main part of campus, and throw harvesting events,” Hobbs explains. 

About one out of every 12 UWF students faces food insecurity, and nationally, that number jumps to one in three across colleges and universities. Realizing the need for a more sustainable source of food, Hobbs and her team first established the community garden on a neglected corner of campus. They transformed an abandoned plot used for dumping debris into three orchards, 16 raised vegetable beds, and a grape trellis. More recently, they installed a solar power system that feeds into the campus grid. 

Produce grown in the garden supports the university’s food pantry, but anyone can visit the space and pick something they’d like to eat. 

“Whoever’s out there working can take home what they like, and people also come when we’re not there, which is great,” Hobbs says, adding with a smile, “Except when someone took my first pineapple. I’d waited three years for it to grow, that was a little devastating.” 

Hobbs points out how food insecurity on campus may not always be apparent or easily defined. While the stereotypical image of an undergrad eating ramen noodles in their dorm connotes something normal or acceptable, in reality, students struggle on a deeper level and many hide their challenges.

Further, food insecurity is not only about affordable food but accessibility. Thus, Argos’ Edible Campus provides sustenance directly in the path of those who need it.

“I had six honors students working with me to launch the program,” Hobbs says. “They did the lion’s share of work, they did the research on plants, they did the planting. Well, I came to find out that one of those students was food insecure and had been using the food pantry - she shared it with all of us. At the beginning of the seminar, we focused on food insecurity and what it looks like, she said she didn’t even realize there was a term for it. It made the experience so much more significant for all of them to know someone personally that was food insecure. It really hit home and it became super important to them to address - they took ownership.”

Of the milestones achieved so far, Hobbs feels student engagement and enthusiasm are the greatest accomplishments. She believes the work they’re doing with Argos’ Edible Campus could easily be implemented on other campuses and communities. 

Hobbs observes, “Sustainability is about using our natural resources in a way that affords for future generations to also be able to benefit from those resources and all that it entails.” 

For more information about Argos’ Edible Campus, visit their website.