Editorial: 'One good idea' flourishes in the community

This is part of an occasional series of editorials focusing on people, places and programs that enrich the South Bend community and make it a better place to live. Submit suggestions for deserving subjects of future editorials at vop@sbtinfo.com.

Sara Stewart, founder and executive director of Unity Gardens, claims she's not creative and "had one good idea."

Well, that one good idea was a big one, built on a simple premise: "What if we could just wander down the street and pick food that was healthy and good for our bodies?"

It was an idea that appealed to Stewart, who was teaching public health nursing at Saint Mary's College when she started the first unity garden in 2008 on Franklin Street; a year later the nonprofit organization was formed.

Since then, the gardens have become an integral part of the community, located in neighborhoods throughout Michiana, drawing thousands of volunteers. The number of gardens fluctuates — 42 so far this year, but there have been as many as 68 and 12 that first year. But what remains constant is the mission you'll find printed on a Unity Gardens flyer: Growing food, growing health, growing community.

A glimpse at the 2024 event schedule offers a hint of that growth: a youth garden art club, outdoor story time in the garden for ages 0-2 and 3-6, an invitation to visit the Unity Gardens booth at the Farmer's Market, to name a few. And did we mention the urban orchard program and the Geo Dome, a structure that extends the growing season through the winter months?

Another sign of growth: 8,000 to 10,000 people visit its main garden at Prast Boulevard every season, including participating in the numerous programs offered there — a far cry from the early days when 10 to 15 people would stop by daily. All of that changed when they put up a sign that said "Pick food free" and received a grant through Neighborhood Resources Connection for a shaded shelter. "You would have thought we literally opened the doors."

In fact, what's special and different about unity gardens is that the doors are open to everyone. It's not that everyone is allowed to pick fresh food — it's that everyone is encouraged to do so. Yes, Stewart says, you should come and pick produce even if you can afford to purchase that green pepper.

"That charitable division that separates those who give from those who receive is erased here," she said in a recent interview. "I walk thru this garden in the summertime and no one knows who I am. They have no idea ... They don't need to know that I'm anything different than the rest of everyone here. We can just be people together. We all wear the kind of same disheveled clothing in the garden. We're all a little bit dirty ... And that's the way we want it because we want to start seeing each other and shedding those social roles that our life circumstances sometimes put upon us."

Because, yes, Unity Gardens is obviously about fresh food for everyone. But it's also about people, about community support, about relationships formed, including with the city of South Bend, which offered to let Unity Gardens use the property on Prast Boulevard, and the county Health Department, which provided free lead testing at the garden site, and local schools, libraries and groups, which help the nonprofit reach more children. There's also a newly established re-entry internship that grew out a collaboration with the South Bend Community Re-entry Center, whose residents helped build the Geo Dome last year.

And then there are the volunteers — 2,000 last year, more than 400 so far this year — who have been critical to the program's success. Consider that Stewart and her husband, Mitch Yaciw, who serves as special project director, didn't hire their first employee until 2015. Today, there are 10 full-time employees with 20 summer interns coming aboard.

"What we're doing together here as a community is unprecedented," Stewart says. "And all of these communities, even just east of us and just west of us, have little food security councils and they sit around the table talking about food security. If I could have all those people putting a tomato plant in, we'd have it, we'd have it."

Editorials represent the opinion of the Tribune Editorial Board. Its members are Audience Engagement Editor Alesia I. Redding, Enterprise Editor Cory Havens and Executive Editor Ismail Turay Jr.

About Unity Gardens

The harvesting season is June through early October. For information about volunteering, visit www.theunitygardens.org or call 574-222-2266.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Unity Gardens are an integral part of Michiana community