MIP Grant 2015: Trinity, Hermantown and St. Andrew’s, Cloquet /
Sustainable Food Gardening at SONA. (Steve O’Neil Apartments in
Duluth)
From Diane Piette, Christian Educator and Team Administrator,
St. Andrew’s:
Duluth, Minn. – We could start with a hundred photos, many taken
by the children of the SONA community, which would tell the story
of this amazing project without any words. Photos showing (in
March) the narrow, steep, city hillside around this apartment
complex that is to be our “garden/play/outdoor classroom/family
green space.” Still photos and short video clips (in April, May,
June, and July) showing the collaborative work of SONA residents,
staff, and other volunteers to create the structures, move the
composted dirt, and plant the gardens; photos of the joy of
watering, weeding, and discovering volunteer edibles from the rich
compost soil; and photos of the joy in learning and harvesting, and
in preparing and serving the harvest. And the best of the late
summer and fall harvest is yet to come.
I will try to limit the photos and highlight the unique quality
of SONA, of our partner agency CHUM, and of the two leaders within
the SONA leadership who are the keystones of the education
components and the community building and implementation for the
successful start of the sustainable food gardening.
When we wrote this grant proposal:
The Steve O'Neil Apartments were nearing completion with
occupancy beginning mid-December. The apartments will provide
permanent supportive housing for 44 families who have experienced
long-term or recurrent homelessness. A growing body of evidence
from HUD, the Wilder Foundation, Urban Institute, the National
Center for Family Homelessness, and others supports the
effectiveness of permanent supportive housing to help families
overcome the combination of long-term or recurrent homelessness and
multiple barriers to stable housing. What makes the Steve O’Neil
Apartments unique is CHUM’s focus on the wellbeing of the
children.
When the gardening part of our involvement began in earnest this
spring, the apartments are at capacity with 44 families and now
includes 86 children; about 40% of the children in the 0-5 age
group.
The innovation is providing resources for people in this new
complex the means of providing food for themselves in their own
space and working in community with a support group that assists
along that path. It teaches community sustained agriculture -
sharing as part of community. Cultivating sensory gardens gives the
families a place to become centered and comfortable in their green
space. Mary Lu Larsen, Community Support Coordinator at SONA, has
been one of the key advocates. She stated: “Home base is incredibly
healing and then to begin to add consistent and healthy quality
food is amazing. As the bounty increased – the produce is
incorporated into their meals, especially for those in the
playgroups that are available for the 0-5 group four days per week.
The children are outside in this beautiful space everyday.” She is
passionate about helping others to get rooted in where food comes
from, so that they may be nourished on many levels. “To go out and
take care of our garden and harvest our food together is incredibly
exciting.” She shared many stories of the healing and memories of
the adult community members and the visible shift in the state of
mind of some anxious little people.
The second key individual in the success of the gardening
initiatives is Nahom Abegaze, Children's Program Coordinator. Nahom
has been in deep conversation with the SONA resident community to
assure that all of their ideas have been valued: from the
charrettes prior to the project through the construction stages and
ongoing. To Nahom: “Food is sacred. Food is medicine. First need is
educating around food…what is food…what are we used to
eating…stewarding the soil…culture of SONA gardening, preparing,
sowing, growing, is not separate from setting down our own
roots.”
“Food stories are a thick element of culture, about our society
and this marginalized population. Food is central to every time our
community comes together.” It happens often in this complex with a
great community space with a community kitchen; including every
Friday in the organized way of the official gardening afternoon for
the children and families and for other advertised events for the
whole SONA community.
So many volunteers have come forward to help with this project.
We have been careful that at each workday, we have limited the
number of outside helpers to not exceed the community stakeholders
present. In addition to onsite laborers, in-kind support has been
given in materials, plants, and labor of structures to be brought
in and installed. Dan Kislinger has been our innovative
architectural landscaper – drawing plans for the spaces and the
support structures, leading the building and placements, defining
the microclimate and limitations or possibilities of each space. He
donated rhubarb plants. His connection to the Duluth Community
Gardens has been valuable in securing plants, including Siberian
Kiwi. Gloria Dei Lutheran Church asked to be called on to
contribute. They built and donated the boxes and soil for six 2x2’
raised garden boxes (to add to our six 4x8’ raised beds capacity).
One of their farmers donated tomato and cucumber plants, collard,
and more. The Duluth Community vegetable of the year is the potato.
The Rev. Cheryl Harder took community moms and children to the
public library to get the donated potatoes for our garden (the
children planted four kinds of potatoes). A local butterfly garden
enthusiast helped to plant milkweed and to educate the children
about butterfly gardens. Children brought their started seedlings
home from school and planted them and continue to tend to them.
Nahom and Mary Lu each expressed gratitude that the technology
elements of the grant were included, left in, and not the first
cut. We all thank the grant committee for funding our request and
all of the donations that enabled our funds to include the camera,
computer, and software to document all of the stages of this
educational project. The children have been avid photographers and
are ready to make educational and fun gardening, instructive,
anecdotal, storytelling video and presentation materials to sustain
and record the beginning year of the project.
At a recent event, on Tues., July 21 – Tour of the Playscape and
Garden and Dinner, Nahom asked 11-year-old Zoie to lead the tour.
She was able to capably lead her group telling about the plant
names and functions and detailing the recent planting for the
butterfly garden. Nahom said that there are other kids we want to
help so badly that still have barriers, but we have “come so far
with the gardening and with the education.”
Nahom: “Food ought to be sacred. It’s the fabric of life with
consequences. We need to act in a way to honor that – eat well,
source locally, share knowledge and skills, be very generous, share
abundance to whoever is willing and able to accept it. Tell others,
I love you so much I want to share this with you.” And the
gratitude is coming back with thank-yous: “Thanks for cooking; I
really like what you’re doing with the garden – with kids.”