Trevecca Nazarene University’s award-winning TreeCycle program has reached a major milestone. On February 6, 2024, the Urban Farm team planted their 1,000th tree. The October Glory Maple tree was planted on the Trevecca campus near the Moore Gymnasium, Tennessee Residency Hall and Wise Apartments.
The TreeCycle program began in 2018 as an initiative of the University’s Urban Farm. The Urban Farm hires middle and high school age students for five-week internships. They plant fruit and nut trees in the Napier, Sudekum and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods to help with hunger, as well as beautification.
“The TreeCycle program was born out of need and love,” said Jason Adkins, Trevecca’s Urban Farm director. “Trevecca is proud to call this part of Nashville home and we want to help the neighborhoods around our campus. This program allows us to help feed our neighbors by planting edible fruit and nut trees.”
Program interns also repair bicycles and donate them to nearby residents without a vehicle so they will have a reliable mode of transportation.
The Urban Farm and TreeCycle program are both part of Trevecca’s J.V. Morsch Center for Social Justice. Both programs teach participants important and practical farming skills, as well as instilling the value of caring for the needs of others. The Urban Farm raises chickens, ducks, goats and pigs. It also maintains a beekeeping and campus composting program, as well as a greenhouse, urban orchard, vegetable gardens and a worm farm.
“Being able to say we’ve planted 1,000 trees is a humbling and encouraging milestone,” said Adkins. “We realize that every tree we plant matters. Trees help clean the air, reduce erosion and pollution runoff, protect and feed wildlife and these trees can help feed our neighbors. We look forward to planting 1,000 more!”
Both the Urban Farm and TreeCycle programs are made possible through government grants.
Becky Dotson
