Katie's Commons

The Friends in Commons blog is an excuse to converse about gardening, the importance of community and nurturing the common good.  The vehicle for this conversation is a community garden being planted in Mulberry Indiana, Katie's Commons.  Below is the proposal made to our local food pantry, Stone Soup, and to the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church Council, two of hopefully many more partners to come in this enterprise.  No ground has yet been broken; we stand at the very beginning of this project. Friends in Commons will chronicle the first year and perhaps beyond of our work.

The idea for Katie's Commons was born of a love for gardening and an observation of increasing food insecurity in our community.  Stone Soup and other pantries such as the one at Cornerstone Assembly of God are doing great work.  The community garden will be a venue to involve more people in the process of providing food and in the process growing community.  The harvest from Katie's Commons will include the common good.

I have much to learn.  I welcome conversation and ask for your prayers.

    Katie’s Commons, a Proposal

Katie’s Commons is a community garden that will serve the people of Mulberry and the surrounding area.  It resides under the umbrella of Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church, which will allow it to apply for church and community grants and offer appropriate tax breaks to donors.  It also looks to Gloria Dei for the use of land.  However, in its administration Katie’s Commons takes its lead from the Stone Soup Food Pantry in that it seeks to serve beyond the congregation and involve leadership from all the Mulberry churches and the community.

Katie’s Commons (named in honor of Katie Luther, wife of Martin Luther and Reformation leader in her own right) will be a “victory” garden.  It will not, at least initially, parcel out individual plots to members of the community but it will be a garden planted, cared for and harvested by a community of volunteers.  The produce will be selected with those served by the Stone Soup food Pantry in mind.  They will be consulted as to what is to be planted.  They will have opportunities to work in the garden and they will have access to the first fruits of the garden through the food pantry.  Greater detail of mission and implementation will be worked out by the board of directors for Katie’s Commons.

The garden will offer seeds and seedlings in the spring so that clients of the food pantry and people in the larger community can create and plant their own gardens.

In addition to being a source of food Katie’s Commons will also find opportunities to be a source of education.  The knowledge and skills required to provide for one’s own food security are not universally possessed.  Therefore, education, particularly in the areas of gardening, seed saving, food preparation and food preservation, is necessary.  We will seek out teachers and mentors in these areas and facilitate educational opportunities for the community. 

Just as the newly planted seed is the beginning of a miraculous life giving transformation, it is our fervent hope that Katie’s Commons will be a part of a life transforming process in the lives of people and communities.