Growing food and community

By Ingrid Kirst

When asked why she likes having a community garden plot, Sherry Simons said, “We’ve been eating a lot more fresh vegetables, which has been great for my kids because it’s teaching them to like vegetables and build a preference for fresh, healthy food.” Jennifer Verhein said, “There’s something magical about planting tiny tomato plants the first week in May, and now they’re taller than me in mid-July.”

Just these two quotes show why community gardens are so valuable—growing food and learning about it is a lifelong process.

What is a community garden? According to the American Community Garden Association, it is “Any piece of land gardened by a group of people.” This broad definition encompasses vegetable gardens, flower gardens, school gardens, gardens at senior centers and allotment gardens. In Nebraska, we have all of these and more. Community gardens allow families to grow food for themselves, but they also beautify neighborhoods, teach respect for the land, create community, save money and encourage self-reliance.

Simons, a gardener at the Rosemont Alliance Church community garden, says, “The most important thing is that gardening shows you [that] you can do something even if you’ve never done it before. Last year, I was looking to every one else for advice because I had no idea what I was doing. This year, people are looking to me for tips on how to garden.”

The most common type of community garden in our area is an allotment garden in which each family is assigned a small plot within the garden to tend. The family chooses the food they want to grow, making use of provided water, seeds, plants and tools to raise their food. The gardeners save money by growing their own produce and improve their nutrition because they have ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables. One family grew almost 400 pounds of food in their plot last year! Gardeners also get exercise while gardening and can educate children and other family members and friends about how to garden. Because of the common love of gardening, they make new connections with people they might not have gotten to know otherwise. It’s easy to strike up a conversation with your plot neighbor about the odd-looking tomato that he is growing. Neighbors living around the gardens also appreciate the improvement in the appearance of the area, and gardens have even been shown to reduce crime rates due to increased activity in the plots.

Verhein, a gardener at the CROPS 30th and Dudley Community Garden, says, “My favorite part is the community-building piece. The other day I was working in my garden and a young couple walked by. The young lady asked if I was harvesting watermelon (it was yellow squash), so I gave her a squash and told her how to cook it. [The gardens] are a great icebreaker and give you a chance to talk to neighbors that you might never meet.”

Community CROPS (Combining Resources, Opportunities and People for Sustainability) is the largest provider of community gardens in the Lincoln, Neb., area. This nonprofit organization strives to help families grow food for themselves and the community through a network of community gardens, a farm training site, regular educational workshops and a farmers’ market. Community CROPS has over 170 families gardening at sites all over Lincoln, including at 46th and Pioneers Boulevard, Antelope Church of the Brethren and Rosemont Alliance Church. Working in partnership with a variety of community organizations, CROPS increases the number of plots available each year to meet the demand of families wanting to grow their own food. Most gardeners grow food for themselves and give the surplus to friends, but some grow food specifically to donate to local shelters and food banks.

Community CROPS began in 2003 with just one community garden. Three more were added the second year, and the growth has continued every year as demand increases. This year, five new gardens were opened across Lincoln, bringing the total to 15. The available plots rapidly filled up as families found out about the availability of land for gardening. One new garden at Oak Lake Church was planning to start small with six to eight plots. It quickly grew to become 17 because of a high demand in the northwest part of Lincoln for garden space. More community gardens are already being planned for 2010.

Community gardeners come from a wide variety of backgrounds and levels of gardening experience. Many community gardeners are recent immigrants and refugees who always had a small garden at home and want to continue growing food for themselves. Gardeners hail from Bosnia, China, Brazil, Iraq, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Sudan and many other countries. Other families are native Nebraskans who are gardening for the first time since they were children due to the changes in the economy and the excitement surrounding growing your own food.

In addition to the community gardens, Community CROPS has worked with a number of other organizations in Lincoln to help them start their own community garden. At Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, a small garden provides education to guests as well as opportunities to cook fresh foods. Plots are now available for residents at the People’s City Mission. Youth gardens are also appearing in many places across the city, many led by Lincoln’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Creating the gardens brings together a diverse range of partners, including local nurseries, tree care businesses, faith-based organizations, city government, nonprofit organizations and private individuals. These connections build strong partnerships for future projects.

Lincoln is not the only city in the state to host community gardens. In Omaha, two organizations provide community garden plots. City Sprouts has maintained community and family gardens in its half-acre demonstration plot at 40th and Franklin Streets in the Orchard Hill Neighborhood of North Omaha since 1995. The site is a beautiful location for a garden, with raised beds and native plants thanks to the hard work of many volunteers and contributions from donors and foundations. Over the years, City Sprouts has helped establish community and family gardens at various Omaha neighborhoods, such as Gifford Park, Leavenworth and north Omaha. For more information on City Sprouts and their upcoming classes, see the Web site at http://www.omahasprouts.org.

The Big Garden, a network of community gardens located in Omaha is focused on empowering neighbors to grow nutritious food, build community relationships, create safe neighborhood spaces and develop healthy lifestyles. The garden project was started by Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede, executive director of United Methodist Ministries - Missouri River District to help in the organization’s mission to eradicate poverty. The number of garden sites in the Big Garden network has grown to over two dozen, each located on the grounds of a church, school or nonprofit community organization. Residents of the various neighborhoods are welcome to plant, maintain and harvest their own plots in the garden, and sites are managed and supervised by a professional staff. Education and training are a vital part of the Big Garden experience. A Master Gardener and a staff of summer interns are available for day-to-day, hands-on training in the gardens and to provide educational programming for youth through the various organizations that host the gardens. A new initiative, the Big Rural Garden, will add community gardens in rural Southeast Nebraska, with sites this year in Auburn and Falls City. Information on the Big Garden can be found at http://www.gardenbig.org.

Growing food is not just a way to directly feed a family, it can become a small business as well. At Community CROPS, gardeners have the opportunity to transition to growing at Sunset Community Farm, a farm incubator site on the west side of Lincoln. To be eligible, participants must attend an eight-session training course on growing organic vegetables, business planning and marketing. Once they begin growing at the farm, they receive regular one-on-one assistance on growing the best possible product, as well as help marketing their produce. Farmers sell at the Old Cheney Road Farmers’ Market on Sundays and at the Community CROPS Pentzer Park Farmers’ Market on Thursday evenings. Crops are also purchased from them for the Community CROPS Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a weekly vegetable subscription program.

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