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.