We are Brookside

Every single person has a story. History is shaped by those stories.

Hi. My name is Bethany. And The Garden that you may have already read about is located at my home in the Near East Side community. Welcome to a glimpse of my story.

Two of the most important things to know about me are that I love food and I love people. Not necessarily in that order.

The Near East Side is my home. Being born and raised here, it is the community that grew me through a deep, rich history and made me who I am today.

In a culture that is slowly becoming more disconnected than ever, there is an "Us versus Them" mentality that is polarizing us and poisoning the potential for relationships. It keeps the partitions of assumption and criticism high and thick, making it more impossible to connect with ones that might be different than you.

It is our desire to see these walls come down brick by brick.

So we, my husband and I and our two children, chose to settle in Brookside Neighborhood over two years ago to join a community and see those walls come down in our city by intentionally going after growing food and building community around a table of lush, colorful, urban-farmed, delicious food.

I believe that fresh food shouldn’t be a commodity for the wealthy. Food fuels life. Food is also a connector of people. The Garden is a place where food and people come together. It’s simple: As human beings, we require food to survive, and as human beings, we also require relationships with others.

Everyone should be a part of a family. The Garden is a place for families to form, crossing over bloodlines and fusing people together into a community—a family. One that transcends our societal norms.

There is no agenda here. WE are Brookside. We have chosen to grow a family here and learn from our neighbors through authenticity and sharing life together. We are all us.

It is our privilege to join in this great story and offer a simple garden and safe place for kids, families, and everyone in between to have a safe place to belong and grow.

Until there is no them.

The History

Have you ever been faced with an issue so big you don't even know where to begin? That's the place we were at.  In the spring of 2017, we came together with a common issue at heart.  It is an issue that has several names: human trafficking, sex trafficking, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking- all of which describe a similar form of oppression.  Contrary to popular belief, this is occurring in our own communities and isn't limited to the heart-wrenching stories we hear about overseas.  Though it can appear multiple ways, the damage that is done is the same.

What started as awareness became a prayer that turned into what is now The Garden at Brookside. We strategically placed ourselves in an area of high susceptibility to these social issues and- more importantly- it is an area that is rooted in community and relationship. An area bursting with life and restoration that we are here to come alongside and learn from.

"To be in communion means to be with someone and to discover that we actually belong together. Communion means accepting people just as they are, with all their limits and inner pain, but also with their gifts and their beauty and their capacity to grow: to see the beauty inside of all the pain. To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: 'You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust.' ” -Jean Vanier; From Brokenness to Community.