New funding is allowing greater collaboration this summer between community gardens in Austin to help them continue their mission of providing a dose of nature and accessible food for the community.
Community gardens help fill the gaps in Austin’s food desert, but they are also shared spaces for residents of all ages to connect and find community amidst the dirt, vegetables, and gardening tools.
Chamika Moore, an Austin resident with a background in urban farming, is fulfilling a new role at the Austin Garden Collective, a group founded in 2019, that aims to connect and support the roughly 25 community gardens in Austin. She is about five weeks into her new position, which doesn’t have a title yet, and Moore said she is driven to get the youth of Austin more involved in these spaces.
“Every one of our gardens has a story, has a special place that has always come out of a place of love,” Moore said. “People need to be able to pass that message, pass that history and pass that heritage on. What better way to do that than with the youth?”
Moore, a mother of three, said getting everyone involved in the garden regardless of background or age is important. Some youth aren’t interested in garden spaces because they aren’t exposed to it. That’s something she aims to change.
“Everybody has their own role, and there’s always moving parts, but when they come together they fit together like pieces of a puzzle. I hope to be able to connect that puzzle and turn it into a big picture,” Moore said.
Upcoming all-ages events include the Rituals for Remembering workshop, the Tree Ambassador Field Day, and volunteer days across Austin’s community gardens.
Cindy Schneider, the founder and organizer of the Austin Garden Collective, said that through funding from Austin Fresh grants, they were able to hire Moore to help coordinate events, projects, and collaboration between Austin’s community gardens.
She said it has raised the ceiling on what they want to accomplish.
“I think it’s really going to change things for us and for the community gardens, and help support them in more of a robust way,” Schneider said.
Dollie Sherman, the president of the 600 N. Lorel Block Club and steward of the block club’s garden at 624 N. Lorel, said that community gardens offer a shared, safe space for the community.
“I want to bring families and fathers back together with their sons. Mothers back with their daughters. You know, just collaborating, talking, and doing things together. That’s my dream and I believe it’s happening right now,” Sherman said.
Sherman added that she wants to use the shared space of community gardens to bring more dialogue between youth and the adults in the community.
“It’s about bringing the community together, and putting the neighbor back in the hood,” Sherman said.
Patricia Hart, who co-manages the Hart and Peace Garden, at 645 N. Latrobe, and the Paradise Garden across the street, said she and her husband, Robert Hart, created the Hart and Peace Garden for people with disabilities.
Since filling the once-empty-lot with a garden space in 2020, she and her husband now both have physical disabilities.
Now a retiree, Hart is set on enjoying the butterflies, birds and of course – the harvest of the community gardens she co-manages with her husband. She said she loves sharing her “green-thumb” knowledge with her block, know-how she gained growing up in Arkansas, working in her family vegetable garden.
“We have to travel a distance to get some quality food. So, if you grow your own, you can can your own,” Hart said. “People can come by and I’ll teach them how they can do it.”
Find contact information for garden stewards, when gardens are open, and volunteer days across the community at the Austin Garden Collectives website.
