At the center of the four concrete walls of Phillips Hall, there is a thriving garden.

Plots of land fenced in chicken wire play home to a variety of vegetables, with tufts of green poking out of the soil, ready to blossom with tomatoes.

Apple trees line the side of the garden, ripe for the picking. Milkweed thrives, almost overgrown, attracting butterflies to make this their home too.

This garden is the pride and joy of Miles Hegg, senior geography and biology double major and president of Foodlums. The Foodlums, a sustainable food organization at UW-Eau Claire, has been growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in this garden since its conception in 2011.

“A big part of working in a garden is creating, and it’s art,” Hegg said.

Though the garden was previously the sole responsibility of the Foodlums, the responsibilities shifted over the summer. Instead of planting a new crop every semester, the garden has been revamped with plants that will grow year after year, known as perennials.

Hegg said he thinks this will allow the organization to focus more on the values behind its love of food and share it with the community.

Bigger than “green”

When walking into a community garden on campus, the obvious word that comes to mind is “organic.” The organic movement, which farmer J.I. Rodale founded in 1947, has been in a renaissance lately, with sections of supermarkets now dedicated to food grown without genetic modification or pesticides.

Hegg insisted the Foodlums’ purpose is more than “being green,” or focusing on giving back to the Earth. For the organization, it’s a deeper concentration on human connection with the food itself.

“There’s a problem with words like green and organic, they’ve wasted those words,” Hegg said. “Growing your own food and being a part of that culture is basically tying ourselves down back to humans.”

With recent advances in technology now spreading to food, including instant-meals and genetically modified fruits and vegetables, Hegg said it is more important than ever to start connecting with the food we consume. In order to do this, he said society needs to not only change their actions, but also their mentalities.

The availability of consciously grown food can be an obstacle for college students. Growing organic often means a hike in price, which can be deterring to those who can’t afford it. But Hegg encourages those interested in connecting with their food to try growing their own, whether with the organization or otherwise.

“There are definitely places and things you can do if you don’t have a place to grow food, you can do a community garden share,” Hegg said. “That’s where it comes to the mindset, because it takes a lot of work. It takes every single day.”

Hegg, who is greatly interested in how food connects with culture, said he thinks growing your own food is the strongest way to create the identity of a place. With the Foodlums, Hegg hopes to create a sense of place for members within Eau Claire.

“This garden and all other gardens, the reward is knowing you’re doing something from scratch,” Hegg said. “You’re building, you’re creating, and then you’re putting it in your body to create energy and do it again. It’s a cyclical thing.”

He said he believes, despite the steps society has taken away from natural food, groups like the Foodlums will slowly guide food back “in the right direction.”

While the group works to create a sense of place for its members, they also work with the community. Aba Mbikra, assistant professor of math and member of the Foodlums, said he thinks the organization’s biggest strength is their relationship with food lovers within the community.

“I really think Foodlums is for the community,” Mbikra said. “It is for everybody. I don’t think about it as a student organization; I think about it as an organization for people who are concerned about where their food comes from.”

A food democracy

When asked what the definition of a Foodlum is, Hegg could only laugh.

“I don’t think there’s a very sturdy definition,” Hegg said. “It’s not a foodie, it’s not just a bunch of hipsters, it’s not people who are super into organic and sustainable food. I think it’s people who are conscious about the food and what they’re eating.”

Though the group is affiliated with the university, its members reach further than the student body. Mbikra says if you look at the email list the organization uses to send out updates, you will see not only students, but also community members and faculty, like himself.

Mbikra said he was drawn to the Foodlums last year by its table at Blugold Organization Bash (now Blu’s Organization Bash), where the presence of a certain type of student reeled him in.

“What I kind of like about Foodlums a lot is that they are students but they remind me of my people,” Mbikra said. “They are the students I would want to be around anyway.”

It is the melting-pot nature of the group which keeps them moving forward, according to Hegg. Despite being voted in as president of the group, he said he believes everyone is equally important to the organization’s success. In that way, he feels like he is simply leading the way.

“I want to hear people’s ideas,” Hegg said. “I want to see people be creative and see people figure out plans in that way.”

Moving forward, the group is looking to do more than just growing food in the community garden. Hegg hopes to rent kitchen space to teach cooking classes for Foodlums. The Foodlums will be going on “field trips” to farms like A to Z Produce and Bakery farm in Stockholm, Wis. He also hopes to form a coalition with other like-minded groups, like the Conservationists, to educate the campus about the importance of connecting with food.

“It’s got the passion of the religious club, because their hearts there, but they also want to learn,” Mbikra said. “We’re going off to farms, we’re working in that garden, and even though none of us really know 100 percent what we’re doing, we sure do know how to pick stuff and then come together and eat stuff.”