BCTC students plant community garden as source for school’s food pantry
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- BCTC students planted a rooftop garden to supply produce to the school pantry.
- Harvested vegetables address food insecurity and support campus-wide resources.
- Fresh produce offers students healthier options in an area with limited food access.
Bluegrass Community and Technical College is using a community garden, planted on top of one of its classroom buildings, to feed students.
A student-led project has created a rooftop garden aimed at addressing food insecurity among students. Located on the top of the Classroom Building at BCTC’s Newtown campus, students planted and maintained the garden, which grows fresh vegetables and flowers.
Food grown in the garden are distributed to students through BCTC’s HEART (Helping Everyone Attain Resources Together) Food Pantry, which provides food, personal hygiene and cleaning supplies to students.
Xochilt Bautista, a recent BCTC graduate, worked in the garden as a work-study student. Students planted vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, squash and onions, along with marigolds and zinnias as pollinators. While the food picked goes to the food pantry, the flowers get distributed to offices around campus.
Bautista said when she delivers produce to the food pantry, it’s always gone within a day. The garden has grown from getting one or two vegetables at a time, to filling baskets with each harvest.
“It’s amazing from a little space on the roof to getting an entire bunch of produce that students get to take,” Bautista said.
With BCTC’s location on Newtown Pike being a “food desert,” with few options for fresh or heathy foods, Bautista said it was important for students to have access to fresh food easily, rather than fast food.
“We have a fast food restaurant across the street. We have a little cafe down the road, but that’s really it,” she said.
“There’s not really a place where students can go, especially on campus, to get a good meal or something fresh. So having that, especially in this economic climate and having all kinds of processed foods in the stores that tend to be the cheapest, has been really nice for students.”
Peter Mottas, an associate professor of psychology and community support and outreach coordinator at BCTC, said the school began working on the garden last year, though didn’t see any significant harvests until this year.
Mottas said he’s heard from students about wanting even more fresh produce, so the school has plans to continue growing food through the first frost and expand the garden next year.
Mottas recruited Bautista and Colin Olaughlin, another recent BCTC graduate who works in landscaping, to work in the garden this year. Olaughlin said seeing the impact on the school’s community has been “absolutely amazing.”
BCTC said more than 500 students utilized the food pantry last year, along with online orders.
“It’s something that you hear about all the time on campus,” Olaughlin said. “It’s something that’s super needed, especially with nontraditional students, you are going to have more people that come to this school that need (food assistance). So to be able to provide that, especially with how much we’re able to provide, it’s absolutely mind-blowing to me.”
The garden has been an effort from multiple student groups on campus. The summer heat meant the vegetables needed to be watered regularly, even over the weekend when no one was on campus, so the school’s computer club stepped in to develop an automatic watering system.
“You’re never too old to learn,” Mottas said. “I learned a lot. We learned what wasn’t working, what was working. We had different groups involved ... I believe we’ll hit the ground running in the spring, because we know what we have to do.”
Research has shown that food insecurity has a direct impact on student performance, including impacting concentration, memory and social skills.
“We know that food insecurity is a serious barrier to student success,” said Dr. Greg Feeney, president of BCTC.
“This rooftop garden is more than a sustainability project, it’s a symbol of student leadership and community resilience. I’m incredibly proud of our students, faculty, and staff who have come together to care for each other in such a meaningful way.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 11:35 AM.