On Friday, January 22, 2016 the Geography & Environmental Students Association (GESA) at The University of Winnipeg handed two large cheques to teams who competed for GESA’s Eco-Grant. The goal of the grant is to provide funding so that students can implement sustainable campus initiatives.
“I think the Eco-Grant is an excellent opportunity for the Geography and Environmental Students Association to contribute to the University of Winnipeg community in a more meaningful way” says GESA President, Jeremy Leathers. This year two teams were granted the scholarship.
Seed Library winner Maureen Hanlon and GESA Eco-Grant Scholarship Committee representative Justis Henault (Missing: Charlie Crow) Photo Credit: Weldon Hiebert
Seed Library is a grant that was awarded to Charlie Crow and Maureen Hanlon for $1950.00. Upon completion it will include a seed library where students will be able to “borrow” seeds for their own home garden. The idea is that individuals will then bring back some seeds to return to the library after their successful growing season. Crow and Hanlon are also planning to create their own seed garden for the purposes of education and producing seeds to replenish the library. They would also like to have student workshops in the coming academic year.
Daniel LeBlanc, Matthew Nguyen and Hailey Robichaud were awarded $2075.00 for Cultivate UWinnipeg. This project hopes to install rooftop gardens on campus patios. The idea is to produce vegetables that can be sold to campus students at an affordable price. “Addressing food security amongst students at the UW is at the heart of this project. Having the project unfold at main campus will get students involved in our mission and help green up our patios” says Robichaud.
GESA’s Eco-Grant accepts applications in the fall term each academic year and welcomes applications from all campus students. “We would like to thank all of those applicants who applied for this year’s grant, and welcome many more in the future! We wish our winners the greatest success in implementing their projects, and look forward to seeing these green initiatives come to life on the UWinnipeg campus” (Kimberly Thomson, GESA Treasurer).
More information:
Email: gesastudents@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gesastudents/
