Feeding the Community
COMMUNITY
Kane Street Community Garden brings together volunteers to nurture vegetables, relationships and healthy eating. BY JANIS JOLLY | CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Clockwise from top left: Volunteers from Viterbo University and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of La Crosse join volunteer leaders for a work day in the Children’s Garden building new raised beds. Visitors of all ages enjoy the sights, smells and flavors of the garden throughout the year. Shelley Fortner, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, and garden coordinator Todd Huffman say the new greenhouse adjacent to the Kane Street Community Center adds new opportunities for the garden, which is open to all.
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t Kane Street Community Garden, they say, “When we grow it together, we will grow together.” Volunteers with the Kane Street Community Garden, located on city property on La Crosse’s North Side, produce food for anyone who wants it, averaging 30,000 pounds a year. The work is done mostly by volunteers—children and youth groups, families, individuals, retired people and church groups. According to Todd Huffman, garden coordinator, volunteers are the backbone of this monumental endeavor, providing both labor and expertise. Students from Western Technical College’s horticulture program are regular helpers and are knowledgeable on the newest techniques. Hmong volunteers have introduced vegetables from their culture. One retired professor from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse studied tomato culture and greatly increased the garden’s production. “Everyone is welcome here,” he says. “You don’t need to be low-
income to work here or to take fresh vegetables home. We hope anyone who likes to garden, or wants to learn about gardening, or just likes to eat fresh vegetables will feel welcome to come and join in.” Besides working in the garden, WTC horticulture students plant around 100 trays of seedlings in their own greenhouses, each worth about $25. By early spring, a surprising number of plants are already growing. A large, movable hoop house sits on rails, allowing it to be moved between two adjacent fields. In April it was moved off so spinach plants could grow quickly in the direct sun of spring and became home to beautiful new butter crunch lettuces and broccoli. Huffman says the garden would have broccoli to harvest by the time this magazine hits the newsstands. A new greenhouse attached to the Community Center on Kane Street has also been a boon to the garden. It is closer and more www.crwmagazine.com JUNE/JULY 2021 35
