WP1

Rachel Zhang
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A Discourse Community: Edible Campus Program

If you are a low-income student, will you be more willing to accept snacks and canned food

or fresh produce that Campus Food Bank received? Those canned foods may be carefully selected

by donators when they are considering either buying organic original canned potato soup or spicy

one. However, that may not be the best way to help low-income students considering high-sodium,

which increases their blood pressure, and excess sugar, which causes obesity, contained in the

packaged and canned foods. Edible Campus Program is an environmentally friendly program at

UCSB that is dedicated to “address local food insecurity by repurposing food production and

turning waste into food”(Edible Campus Program). The program represents a non-academic

discourse community that does not require its members to have professional agriculture knowledge.

It has different kinds of activities and publicity campaigns to attract members. Facebook is an

appropriate media to form ECP for informing information about activities as voluntary projects and

enabling members to learn about eco-friendly lessons the community offers.

First, the Edible Campus Program spreads information about food insecurity at UCSB via

Facebook posts because it serves as a tool that allows the member to operate the group. The

program’s objective is to utilize the limited sources on campus to plant vegetables and fruit to offer

it to low-income students by donating to the Associated Student Food Bank. The info of its

Facebook page shows the aspiration that “the Edible Campus Project aims to address local food

insecurity by repurposing underutilized spaces for food production”(UECP Facebook).

Additionally, the program educates students about environmental sustainability and builds a

community to recruit volunteers and supporters for donation. While the main purpose of the

program is not to teach students sustainable farm construction, the Edible Campus program has an

intention of making people around us to live in a more sustainable life and saving students from

lack of nutritional food. Some posts on its Facebook website proves how it contributes. As the
Facebook post states, “the Edible Campus Program will be looking for volunteers to help us

assemble the Hydroponic Vertical Garden and planting seeds. The volunteers will be learning about

how to properly garden seeds and behind the scenes of fresh produce growing that is distributed at

the A.S. Food Bank”(UECP Facebook). By applying for voluntary activities, volunteers can get to

know its process of how they farm and transfer to A.S Food Bank. Another post that also builds the

strong relationship between its goal and activity that relates to A.S Food Bank is “As promised

Edible Campus Program made our first harvest from the hydroponic towers today and delivered it to

the AS Food Bank!”(UECP Facebook). Writers within the community published an announcement

to members they have realized their promise this year to those students in need. And it also shared

the intense joy with other members of ECP and told them that they had taken a giant leap to reach

its common goals.

Edible Campus Program has “mechanism of intercommunication among their members and

uses its participatory mechanism primarily to provide information and feedback”(Swales). There is

one primary mechanism of intercommunication offered for members to communicate. ECP has a

Facebook website that allows its members to post their events. Not only does it function as a

platform to attract audiences, but also ECP members can easily share the information with other

members to inform the time of the event. For instance, a post from UCSB Edible Campus Program

informs “Isla Vista students and community members” of the party location “University United

Methodist Church (892 Camino del Sur Goleta, CA 93117) on October 7 at 12:15 – 1:30

PM!”(UECP Facebook). It explicitly aims at ‘Isla Vista students and community members.’ The

post clearly shows the address that party hold. And thanks to the convention of Facebook posts,

members can share the information with others within the group telling them they have an event in

walking distance and it is a party! This post serves to create a great connection between the

community and its member.

Further, members of ECP can trace their memories back while browsing the Facebook page

where presenting their efforts via pictures and someone’s fantastic experiences. The Facebook posts
use plenty of second person pronouns not only to be approachable but also to show its appreciation

to its members and volunteers. According to one post, “Thank you so many volunteers for coming

out to St. Michael's church BBQ and participating. It was a successful event because of your help!

Also, a great event planned by our St. Michael Intern Arely!”(UECP Facebook) It showed its

respect to those volunteers and brought them closer. Another post expressed an even stronger

affiliation with its volunteer. “Thank you to Sasha, Jackson Hayes, Shane, and Adriana Ocasio as

well as to Adory Khandaker who made some beautiful signs to post at the pantry helping students

know where their food comes from!”(UECP Facebook). It looks like a reward which directly

mentioned volunteer’s name, and the feedback to members and volunteers promotes them to be

more loyal to the organization.

Not only Edible Campus Program communicate via Facebook posts and Messengers, but the

organization also has its website to explain terms and make a summary of events to reach its aims

better. Different from Facebook posts they published, ECP placed more specific information of its

various plans on the website. If you browse its site, you will have a clue about “Campus Farm” it

launches. According to webpage “Campus Farm”, the webpage “Campus Farm” illustrates the

campus farm location and describes some details of the landscape like “have an adjoining fence

with the Children’s Center”(Campus Farm). It has put the location and construction map of the farm

on its website in case people would like to know and visit. And it also helps to clear students’

doubts of what is west campus used for, since a lot of students have thought there meant to be

classrooms or academic buildings based on its name. ECP also publishes the produce list for

Student Farm to remind and ensure that they can meet their distribution goals. Low-income students

can even get to know the items that donated to the A.S Food Bank if checking that lists. Low-

income students may be happy while browsing the website because there will be no longer

unwanted canned foods collecting dusk in the A.S Food Bank, but instead fresh produce as stone

fruits, squash, and broccoli. ECP community successfully furthers its aims in solving food

insecurity at UCSB.
 Edible Campus Program also has its lexis that only members of ECP may understand to

intercommunicate successfully. For instance, it launched its first hydroponic project in Spring 2017.

Normals may not even hear of what “hydroponics vertical garden” (Hydroponics

) is. However, students in ECP have been educated that the seed’s roots grow into the air instead of

soil. It is more likely to be seen as “aeroponic systems”, which is used in aeroponics to transmit

nutrients. Based on the size of the water droplets, it has been called as a hydroponic growing

system. Take another Facebook post the program shared as an example. “DPW is hiring! Apply on

Handshake! Worm Wranglers help manage the urban orchard and other ECP projects. We basically

get to garden and have fun all day!! Come join our team”(UECP Facebook). “DPW” is the

abbreviation of Department of Public Worms. “Worm Wranglers” refers to a job that requires

individuals to maintain its program by feed and care for the population of worms and assist with

some outreach activities. Also, “urban orchard” is a project that plants citrus trees in underutilized

areas at UCSB.

Last, the Edible Campus Program also satisfies the last requirement of being a discourse

community. There should be a fair number of experts and trainees to make those people engage in

the organization. Trainees, for instance, volunteers, may not be willing to spend their Sunday

afternoon knowing professional knowledge of how to build an agricultural system. It only asks

volunteers and members to do the simplest job, which is to assemble the Hydroponic Vertical

Garden. According to the information within the post, “the Edible Campus Program will be looking

for volunteers to help us assemble the Hydroponic Vertical Garden and planting seeds”(UECP

Facebook). Facebook posts do not place a large ratio of academic knowledge of Hydroponic

Vertical Garden as its website. Members who are within the community and has transformed from

trainees to experts already acquired this theoretical knowledge. Therefore, it is wise for them not

putting much high-level expertise in the Facebook posts. In consequence, more and more students

will ask for volunteer opportunities and join the program to help maintain the organization, and may

have a chance to learn academic knowledge to construct the design of farm.

 Overall, the Edible Campus Program is an excellent example of the discourse community.

The program set up a set of common goals, which is to solve food insecurity within some UCSB

students, and to encourage members to realize. It uses Facebook posts to provide information, for

instance, time and location of voluntary works, to group members, and make intercommunication

while showing appreciation towards their members within posts. The lexis ECP uses are exclusive

for its members. And it maintains a constant ratio between experts and apprentices to cooperate and

make the community vivid. It is getting close to the aims of the community and continuously helps

those low-income students to live better. 


 Works Cited

“Campus Farm.” UCSB Sustainability, 12 Apr. 2018, www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/campus-farm/.

“Edible Campus Program.” UCSB Sustainability, 7 Sept. 2018, www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/

ediblecampus/.

“Hydroponics.” UCSB Sustainability, 12 Apr. 2018, www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/hydroponics/.

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic and

Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.

UCSB Edible Campus Program. Look for volunteers. Facebook, 24 Sep. 2018, 1:50 a.m,

https:// www.facebook.com/events/2189611304610918/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.

UCSB Edible Campus Program. Joy of first harvest. Facebook,15 Aug. 2017,

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__xts__[0]=68.ARBF5ely1cDilIlQQdLEyOXfR4UpmRMfW0YuSMC9P_LL676LeeEOCE

fgmNl-V31AUlimvEkrG8BcvflyzFx1OV3B41HXq2Ebog_h6WGu4ijXd5-

rqUJ4kIzDD3edrNajFoLaHbMLCrPlZOE5CPyRGwvsAFOy7iD7uhy-uocHv-

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UCSB Edible Campus Program. The Methodist Community Garden Planning Party. Facebook, 25

Sep. 2018, 10:38 p.m,

https://www.facebook.com/events/2123805664499600/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.

UCSB Edible Campus Program. Summary of the church BBQ event. Facebook, 2 Oct. 2018,

https://www.facebook.com/EdibleCampusProgram/photos/a.

1543750989258615/1957657537867956/?type=3&theater. Accessed 19 Oct. 2018.

UCSB Edible Campus Program. Hiring a Worm wrangler. Facebook, 22 Nov. 2017,

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3-EcGQ5_K_Jgk-1x9BBT8TqqT_B4xYo55XxN5G-

K9eeHHRHhOqcMfSlWDMysxejBq6dJnmJpyEACkDo3Z5xDl-

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