The project was part of the University’s Community Service Learning program. It brings hands‑on, community‑based work into courses so students can apply academic concepts to real‑world contexts.
A class built around real-world experience
The Community Service Learning program is based on a simple but ambitious idea: that students learn best when they can put theory into action. Through partnerships with community organizations, students apply what they learn in class to real-world challenges through structured volunteer activities that meet a community need. Projects vary by discipline and are graded as part of a given course. Professors, students and community partners work together to shape these projects.
Andrew Heffernan, the Faculty of Arts professor who taught Natural Resource and Environmental Management, implemented community service learning for the first time in winter 2026. Although he completed a placement as a student years ago, he describes this experience as a rediscovery. The process, he says, was highly collaborative. Working closely with Community Service Learning program staff, Heffernan designed a project that aligned with the course objectives while leaving enough room for student creativity.
“The program really empowers professors and, just as importantly, gives professors a framework to empower students,” says Heffernan.
“The program really empowers professors and, just as importantly, gives professors a framework to empower students.”
Andrew Heffernan
— Professor, Faculty of Arts
Experiential learning meets food systems and sustainability
Heffernan frames food security and sustainability as issues that politicians and large institutions too often overlook, even though local communities feel their impacts daily. When others’ attention is elsewhere, he says, grassroots organizations and local initiatives are left to respond. This creates space for universities and community partners to step in and make a tangible difference.
One such partner is the National Children’s Botanical Garden of Canada, a growing community initiative to promote sustainable food systems. Heffernan’s class collaborated with the garden through the Community Service Learning program. And that partnership quickly became the centrepiece of the course. Together, students and partners developed low-cost, sustainable grow kits designed for schools and community members.
Learning that grows and lasts
What emerged during the term exceeded expectations. Students built a multitude of grow kits, contacted local businesses and schools, secured donations and even created educational materials, including a children’s book about food waste and sustainability. They also got to work on their skills in research, writing, presenting and community outreach, all while learning collaboratively.
The impact extended beyond the classroom. In its evaluation of the students’ work, the garden highlighted the high level of student buy-in and the project’s real-world relevance. By combining research, analyses of current circumstances and practical applications, the students produced solutions with clear potential for use and long-term impact. The garden plans to use students’ work as part of the organization’s strategy moving forward, with some projects set to go into effect as early as summer 2026. Some students have already committed to working on their project beyond the class. And the groundwork has been laid for the initiative to expand in future phases.
This hands-on approach to teaching offers students an experience they can connect to policy debates, politics and their own communities. It also offers professors a good reminder of what teaching can be when students are trusted with real-world responsibility.
To instructors considering working with the Community Service Learning program, Heffernan says this: the support is there, the flexibility is real, and the rewards for students, communities and teaching itself are profound.