The GARDEN@GCLS

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The Gloucester County Library System (GCLS) in southern New Jersey serves a population of 102,640 in fourteen member communities. The Garden@GCLS, located at the library system’s Mullica Hill Branch, was founded in the Spring of 2015 with a three-fold mission; provide quality classroom instruction to our patrons on how to cook nutritiously, how to grow their own food sustainably while raising awareness about food insecurity, and help local pollinators by raising awareness of the issues they face as well as the creation of a pollinator garden. The Garden@GCLS is also able to provide donations of fresh produce to local food banks with the excess not used in our classes. The space also provides a healthy and relaxing environment, not just for our patrons, but the local insects such as honeybees and butterflies with the indigenous plant life we have planted. The initial idea for the Garden@GCLS bloomed out of collaboration with our makerspace, the MakerStudio@GCLS, and the Gloucester County Certified Gardeners. Our makerspace is a place to work and learn collaboratively on a wide range of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) focused endeavors. Many of the new Maker programs are tech-based, but traditional art and craft classes are very popular with our community. A local sustainable gardening advocate taught a successful series of homesteading classes that our patrons adored. The thought was that if we could grow our own produce to use in these homesteading classes we could also provide instruction from the very beginning of the process - from “Seeds to Salad.” The Garden@GCLS is also in alignment with Gloucester County Library System’s mission which is to provide “welcoming community spaces where people gather to learn, create, and have fun.”