Sunday afternoon, the University of Michigan Sustainable Food Program hosted its fifth annual Harvest Festival at the University’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens. The Harvest Festival brings together a wide swath of organizations and groups at the University and in Ann Arbor to raise awareness about sustainable food systems and to educate members of the community about the relationship between food production and the environment.

The Matthaei Botanical Gardens is a University-run property founded in 1907 that, according to its website, aims to inform students and citizens about food production methods and form community for those interested in the environment and working to implement sustainable practices in farming.

Catriona Mortell-Windecker, the education and interpretive services coordinator at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, said though it is far from Central Campus, the gardens draw a variety of students and community members that use the property for various projects.

“(The farm) is … a gathering point for all the student organizations that are here (at the festival),” Mortell-Windecker said. “We are that central, hands-on place.”

One of the groups at the event was the University’s Permaculture Design Team, which uses the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and the surrounding area to implement farming methods based on the principles of permaculture. Permaculture is an area of study that works to observe what resources are available in nature and apply that to designing sustainable food systems.

LSA junior Madelyn Celovsky said she and her team were at the festival to raise the profile of the work they do at the gardens.

“We are giving tours of the food forest and are trying to get student interest,” Celovsky said. “We are in our second year of growing and what we have right now are a lot of nut trees, berries … and some herbs.”

For Art & Design sophomore Siena McKim, the farm is much more than a place where sustainable farming occurs.

“I personally like having a connection with the Earth, like a lot of my artwork deals with ecological and environmental issues,” McKim said. “I love being in tune with nature and … I think it is good for people in general to experience what it is like to grow food.”

Educating the general public about the benefits of sustainable farming practices and eating organic foods was a major theme at the event. David Hall, the People’s Food Co-Op outreach and education coordinator, emphasized that the organic foods movement needs to engage the general public and help to make healthy food available to the community.

“We come to events like this to put a table up and meet people, connect with other organizations and also give them support,” Hall said. “We have been around for a while … and students are young and come and go and some of them are newer to these kinds of things … so it is great to just come out and see the students and whoever else comes out.”

Stefan Savoy, an LSA and Art & Design sophomore, said this year’s Harvest Festival was his first and he came to learn more about sustainable farming.

“I am interested in finding good places to get organic groceries and exploring that kind of realm of food, especially since I am in an apartment this year,” Savoy said.

The lack of organic food options available to students on campus was also an issue raised by Reid Hamilton, a chaplain at the Canterbury House. The Canterbury House is an Episcopal campus ministry that is making food insecurity amongst college students a central facet of its community outreach efforts.

“A lot of students have trouble accessing affordable, healthy, sustainable, fresh food,” Hamilton said. “If you are living off-campus at the University and you don’t have a car, there is no way on foot that you can get to an affordable grocery store … (as) humans do not live by ramen noodles alone.”