Help ElonPSJ build the Morrowtown Community Garden

Hi! My name is Robert Leib, and I am the professor for the senior capstone course in the Poverty & Social Justice program at Elon University.

 

This fall, my students and I are partnered with the Morrowtown Community Group, and we are helping them start a new community garden to fight food insecurity! The Morrowtown neighborhood is classified as a "food desert" for some. Many residents do not have access to reliable transportation making grocery trips for fresh produce difficult. We hope that a community garden will help provide some relief to those residents and inspire a sense of unity in the community.

 

The Morrowtown Community Group is a non-profit organization based in Burlington, focused on neighborhood stability through the creation of community spaces & programming. In the future, MCG is building a neighborhood land trust aimed at keeping the cost of living in Morrowtown affordable for its current residents, come what may. The garden is their first property acquisition in this direction.

 

We are raising money to buy the initial materials for a locking tool shed, raised beds, basic tools, solar lighting, irrigation system, and fencing. The Group’s mission is to “educate, empower and encourage residents through impactful projects to effect change and better our community!” We anticipate that the community garden will meet these aims by giving low-income residents the opportunity to learn new food gardening skills, which will empower them to fight food insecurity, while providing a safe community gathering space for all Morrowtown Residents.

 

The garden is planned for 642 S. Mebane St. in S. Burlington. You can see the location of the site on Google Maps by searching ‘Morrowtown Community Garden’. We hope to be up and running by March 1, 2022.

 

In a recent survey of Morrowtown community members 83% of residents want to participate in a community garden initiative. Many neighbors are already signed up to help construct the garden on site over the next 6-8 weeks.

 

All will be welcome once it is completed. The group is also planning to host a weekend farmer’s market once the garden becomes productive and the meeting spaces are set up.

 

After purchasing the land, however, our budget is tight. So, we are approaching friends, neighbors, local and national businesses and non-profit organizations (including Elon University), to raise the money and/or collect donated resources. We are moving forward aggressively with this funding campaign, and any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

 

After many years of planning, this is really finally happening! It's just a matter of how much help the garden can ultimately offer its lower income neighbors. That will be up to all of us!

 

Thanks for your interest and your help!