By Dara Harper
“It’s nice to wake up in the morning and know that the things I’ve just planted will be ready to harvest in a couple of weeks,” says Darika Djusupova ’28, one of two student managers at Pete’s Giving Garden this summer. “The vegetables will be donated, and somebody will get to enjoy the tomatoes I’ve grown.”
That simple, quiet joy is at the heart of everything happening this summer at Pete’s Giving Garden on South Campus, where student managers Maria Buscaglia G’27 and Darika spend their days weeding, planting, and harvesting food that will be supplied to the Coach Mac Food Pantry at Hendricks Chapel.
A Garden Rooted in Need
Pete’s Giving Garden was founded in 2019, after it became clear the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry needed a steady source of fresh produce. Hendricks Chapel partnered with Sustainability Management to bring the idea to life on South Campus, and what started as a single raised bed has since grown into additional raised beds, the Three Sisters gardens, ADA-accessible beds, a pollinator garden, apple and pear trees, raspberry bushes, and four traditional row gardens. The garden has produced over 600 pounds of produce for the pantry to date and has expanded its partnerships to include the David B. Falk College’s Food Studies and Nutrition Program.
The garden’s mission has grown too, now encompassing wellness and research opportunities. But at its heart, the purpose hasn’t changed since day one: growing food for students, using sustainable agriculture practices, row by row.
That food finds its way to the Coach Mac Food Pantry at Hendricks Chapel, named for beloved Syracuse football coach Dick “Coach Mac” MacPherson, who never forgot what it meant to go without the necessities as a child during the Great Depression. Today the pantry serves any Syracuse University or SUNY-ESF student with a valid ID, built on the belief that no student should have to choose between groceries and other essentials.
Two Managers, Two Family Gardens
Ask Maria and Darika how they first fell in love with gardening, and you’ll hear two very different stories that land in the exact same place: family.
Maria traces it back to her dad, who grew tomatoes in their yard when she was a kid. Later, elementary school garden programs introduced her to radishes, jalapeños and corn. Then, something clicked. “I’ve always had a love for food,” Maria says, “and what better way to get food than growing it yourself?”
Now a graduate student pursuing her MA in Nutrition Science at the Falk College of Sport, Maria found her way to the garden after meeting the previous managers at an orientation event and thinking, simply, I want to work in a garden. Her advisor agreed she’d be a great fit, and she applied.
Darika’s roots in gardening stem from her grandmother’s yard in Kyrgyzstan, where the family had beautiful apple trees they’d harvest together each summer, along with tomatoes that became Shakarap, a Central Asian tomato salad often served alongside the rice dish, plov (pilaf). Darika, a rising junior studying computer science, hadn’t gardened much since her childhood, but was curious when she saw the garden manager position posted on Handshake and she decided to apply.
Neither Maria nor Darika came in as an expert. Both are still learning on the job, one weeded row at a time.
What the Garden Has Taught Them
Ask either manager for a favorite harvest, and carrots and cucumbers come up fast. Maria loves pulling carrots that rarely come out in the shape she expects. She’s come to appreciate just how different homegrown vegetables look from what populates the grocery store shelves. She’s also had to make peace with bees, an ongoing project for someone who isn’t naturally fond of things that sting or have “unexpected flight patterns,” added Maria with a laugh.
Darika has grown especially fond of cucumbers and radishes; she enjoys making her own homemade pickles with both. Radishes from the garden are barely bigger than a nickel and come in shades of pale pink, deep purple, and red, nothing like the uniform bunches at the store.
She’s also discovered an unexpected parallel between gardening and her studies as a computer science major at the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “It’s kind of like a trial-and-error thing, same as with coding,” Darika says. “Once you run the script, sometimes it may not work, and you have to tweak a few things.” When the garden’s first batch of cucumber transplants died from the shock of moving straight from a warm greenhouse into cooler outdoor nights, Darika and the team didn’t scrap the plan — they stored the plants in their work shed and then eased the next batch outside gradually until the plants took root and thrived.
For Darika, though, the most meaningful part of the job isn’t the science of it at all. It’s the knowledge that everything she plants has somewhere to go. “I have a direct impact on other people’s lives,” she says. “That’s something I really like about the work that I do here.”
Alison Murray, Hendricks Chapel’s assistant dean for student assistance says, “Our Coach Mac Food Pantry patrons are so grateful to receive the fresh produce from the garden. With lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, garlic and more, our students can make almost any dish they’d like. I’m thankful that Maria and Darika bring the veggies to the pantry after each harvest!”
“Darika and Maria have done a great job overseeing Pete’s Giving Garden,” said Lydia Krayenhagen, project manager for Sustainability Management. In the spring, they created a map detailing where the vegetables and herbs would be planted. Now that we’re in the peak of summer, the garden is thriving. They’ve also done a wonderful job leading volunteers when they visit the garden, whether it be students, faculty, or staff.”
Growing Something Bigger
Maria and Darika didn’t grow up in the same country, let alone the same garden. But they both learned to garden at the side of someone who loved them — a father with a weakness for tomatoes, a grandmother with a gift for apple trees — and they’ve carried that inheritance to South Campus, where it’s lovingly becoming someone else’s dinner.
That, in the end, is the whole story of Pete’s Giving Garden: family lessons, passed down and replanted, growing into something that feeds a community.
Pete’s Giving Garden, a partnership between Hendricks Chapel and Sustainability Management, grows fresh, sustainably raised produce for the Coach Mac Food Pantry which serves the Syracuse University community. If you’d like to volunteer, you can visit any Tuesday of the growing season from 10 AM-12 PM. To learn more, email sustain@syr.edu about scheduling a group visit.
For students experiencing food insecurity or for anyone who would like to donate to the pantry, please visit the Coach Mac Food Pantry web page or call 315.443.2901.
