GROWING COMMUNITY GARDEN
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Mission Statement
Mission: To work toward a just food system and a just community by ensuring access to a garden environment, building community, bonding with nature, sharing healthy food and gaining knowledge and experience with nutrition and healthy living of mind, body, and spirit.
About This Cause
Vision: To be the fore-garden to a just community where people cooperate in growing community, growing food and growing in love with creation, the creator and each other. This is the meaning of Growing Community Garden. Growing Community Garden (GCG) seeks to pursue its mission guided by these core values: • Our strength comes from divine creativity, ecology and economy that invites us to love the earth, love each other and love the spirit of the creator. • We affirm our community of diverse experiences, cultures and points of view, and our respect for the integrity of the natural world. • We are committed to collaborative decision-making as we partner with and support the efforts of others who share in the work of building enduring communities. • We share in the collective responsibility to steward and protect the earth’s resources. • We are committed to do no harm to one another and to the earth • We affirm the earth’s hospitality so that individuals and households may connect with the earth and the beauty of nature for health benefits of mind, body and spirit. • We strive to be anti-racist and believe that social justice must include access to nourishing fresh food and broad opportunity for people to embrace the natural world for healthy living. GCG was initiated 14 years ago by Sunnyside United Methodist Church with full recognition that too little healthy food and welcoming greenspace was present in the neighborhoods nearby and throughout the East Side community of Kalamazoo. The onset of a pandemic, inflationary pressures, and changes in government support programs have only exacerbated the need for better access to healthy fresh vegetables, fruits and berries as well as greenspace for renewal of mind, body and spirit. Collaboration with Eastside Neighborhood Association informs us that these difficult conditions persist and are not projected to improve in the foreseeable future and that demographic attributes appear linked with inequities and an unjust healthy food supply system. Guests of the garden have shared their witness to the essential role GCG has played especially during times of job loss or other emergency household budget crises. The garden leadership has responded to the increased demand for garden produce by expanding significantly especially over the last four years. At over two acres of garden and green space, matters of maximizing the effectiveness of the garden and reshaping its organizational design for longevity and sustainability have become prominent. In December of 2023, Growing Community Garden became a 501(c)(3) charity organization, providing a unique identity and eligibility for tax exempt status. The garden planning and execution each year has functioned mostly on an ad hoc basis regarding what to grow, how much to grow, and how to harvest, serve guests, and distribute excess produce. There has been an ongoing desire to better connect with all households facing food budget stress as well as partnering with neighborhood organizations to address barriers that hinder or prevent those households from accessing fresh vegetables, fruits, and berries and learning how to establish home gardens. The learning and organizing curve is never-ending. GCG has relied almost entirely on volunteer leadership and support for all of its work. The demands of effective and efficient gardening along with the challenge of organizing to maximize the capacity, assets, and imagination of the community to meet overall food insecurity issues suggest that bold steps must continue to be taken. Our network of partners reinforces the awareness that food insecurity is real and persistent for too many households on the east side of Kalamazoo. The GCG Board of Directors is intentionally multiracial and consensus oriented. The birthing faith community has published its commitment to full inclusion and recognition of the ongoing struggle to be anti-racist and seeking to minimize or eliminate identity bias or systemic expression of oppression and dehumanization. GCG seeks to continue that commitment as a separate 501(c)(3) entity. GCG declares in its vision, mission and values statement the commitment to welcome persons of all identities and seek to remove all barriers based on bias, oppression, or physical/emotional handicapping conditions. Collaboration with East Side Neighborhood Association, ERACCE of Kalamazoo, and predominantly Black and Brown faith communities provides stimulus to constantly grow in awareness of BIPOC populations and systemic negative impacts. Our anti-racist analysis informs us that people of color and single mothers are the most at-risk demographic for food insecurity and the dangers of obesity. GCG is within walking distance for a significant part of the community and a bus stop is available at GCG’s location. The garden is intended to be open, available, and accessible throughout the growing season. Several guests have emphasized the need for a smooth path from sidewalks or parking lots into the garden to enable those with mobility challenges to successfully navigate their way into the garden. As a result, the Dan Salerno Memorial Pathway has been installed from the parking lot to garden. Due to wildlife encroachments fencing has been put around the perimeter of the garden. This has created a perceived barrier to access which demands effective communication, signage, and community engagement so that persons of all walks of life, all identities and all conditions can know they are welcome. People of all ages are also welcome. As GCG partners with Comstock Compass High School, Kalamazoo County 4-H, and youth and young adult programs of local faith communities and institutions of higher learning the opportunities are significant for young people to learn gardening skills, nutritional health and the benefits a garden offers for healthy mind, body and spirit. Partnership with Eastside Neighborhood Association affords contact with significant numbers of senior members of the community around GCG. Current engagement with neighborhood households is informal and happenstance as volunteer garden team members welcome guests or other volunteers to the garden, provide tours and information about the garden’s offerings and inquire of the guests or volunteers what draws them to the garden and how GCG can be a responsible resource to them. Repeat guests and volunteers are encouraged to offer their feedback on how the garden is important to them and any suggestions, critiques or observations they might offer. GCG leadership strongly desires to be better informed and connected with households in the community. Formal structures of accountability to the neighborhood households and to GCG’s partners are advancing. As currently configured and staffed with volunteer leadership, GCG is not as deeply connected to a broad swath of the East Side Kalamazoo community as is desired. Sunnyside United Methodist Church, continuing as a partner institution, serves as host to twice monthly food distribution events for Loaves and Fishes, providing additional contact, feedback and input as guests discover the proximity of GCG and its resources. Sunnyside UMC also houses the Free Store of Kalamazoo and readily refers persons facing food insecurity to GCG. GCG leadership projects the formation of an advisory group selected from the community to improve overall accountability and broader community connections. The initial sponsorship by Sunnyside United Methodist Church and its historical partnership with the former Fresh Fire AME Church has been foundational to GCG’s vision, growth, and successes. Other congregations have various roles of partnership that help sustain GCG’s mission, including First UMC of Kalamazoo, Youth for Christ of Kalamazoo, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and an upstart congregation, Transformed by Fire. Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Horticulture and Innovation Department has been a significant partner over the last five years. Collaboration with KVCC through ValleyHub has provided horticultural counsel, connections for volunteer garden help, start plants to augment the plantings in the garden, and supplies and consultation for improving weed barrier effectiveness as well as the implementation of irrigation practices. KVCC ValleyHub has invited GCG leaders to on-campus seminars on community gardening and horticulture practices. KVCC ValleyHub has committed to a long-term collaboration with GCG. Collaborative work and partnership continue with Loaves and Fishes of Kalamazoo, the Free Store of Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County 4-H and MSU County Extension services, Hope for Creation of Kalamazoo, Common Ground, Allen Chapel AME Church, First United Methodist Church of Kalamazoo, Youth for Christ of Kalamazoo, Wenke’s Greenhouses, Comstock Compass High School and Eastside Neighborhood Association. GCG intersects significantly with the work of Loaves and Fishes at its site at Sunnyside United Methodist Church. The garden aligns with the schedule of food distribution to augment Loaves and Fishes supplies with fresh fruits, vegetables and berries from the garden. A similar relationship continues with the Free Store of Kalamazoo housed in the Sunnyside UMC building adjacent to GCG. As a result of GCG’s recognized history and successes, other community gardens have sought consultation/collaboration in the opening or reopening of community garden spaces around Kalamazoo. GCG has not only worked with Allen Chapel AME Church in starting their community garden but has assisted the Wesley Foundation student ministry center on the campus of Western Michigan University multiple times over the years and is currently partnering with Westwood UMC as they explore the creation of a community garden on their space. Many other local businesses, organizations, individuals and farms have made measurable contributions to the work of GCG. Thanksgiving is always in order for the contributions of time, energy, wisdom, funding, materials, equipment, or manure that have come from so many sources in our broader community.