The Abundance Project

Tom Couri 

One of my favorite aspects of the community exploration that we’ve done this summer has been really delving into Woodlawn and seeing how so many of the resources are linked together. There’s a sense of commonality and shared knowledge and resources. This has never been more evident to me than at our volunteer site this week, the 64^th and Kimbark community garden.

The garden is located on vacant land owned by the 1^st Presbyterian Church. The garden is part of the Abundance Project, a Woodlawn community project aiming to unite the community as a whole and improve access to jobs, education, and general quality of life. The Abundance Project, much like SSP, strives to focus on the assest of the community, the good things that are in abundance, as opposed to the needs. Meg works for the Abundance Project and is the head gardener, and she led us on a tour throughout the garden. 

As I walked through the front entrance, I passed Mr. Sterling, a Woodlawn resident who farms half of the garden himself and is very good at it, as evidenced by his plentiful crops and tall plants. I later learned that he buries fish underneath his plants to enrich the soil. In Meg’s part of the garden she showed us all of the different crops she’s growing: cucumbers, tomatoes, greens, lettuce, and a corner of apple trees. She pointed across the street to 1^st Presbyterian Church, where a group of people milled around the entrance listening to jazz music. She explained that they were waiting in line for the food pantry (where we will be volunteering next week). 

What she said next amazed me: some of the produce grown in her garden goes into the food packages given away at the food pantry. The intersection of partnerships in the community, continual local re-investment back into the community, and the implications on community health of locally grown, organic fruit and vegetables is an inspiration. As if on cue, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health waltzed into the garden to hear about the project. We worked the garden for the rest of the morning. Before we left I spoke to Mr. Sterling, who confirmed the effectiveness of fish burials by pointing to his overflowing plots. It seemed an appropriate sight at a garden run by the Abundance Project.