Barefoot Victory Garden: Growing Community
The juxtaposition of nature in the city is striking when you first stumble into Barefoot Victory Garden on Wealthy St. in Eastown. The two opposing worlds meld together as you enter into the garden through a trellis sitting atop stone steps and the rush of city life begins to fade away. The garden is currently in the awkward middle stage of planted but not yet producing, but as the rains and sunbeams pour down and the weeks pass, it will soon become a verdant land in a space that had stood empty for so long. And this has no one so thrilled as garden founder Kelley Heneveld.
Leave it to Heneveld to turn her imaginings of urban gardening into a reality. Always a driven individual, the dreaming began when 24 year old Heneveld left her city life and for one month took part in WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) down in the heart of Alabama. It was here that she embraced her love of dirt covered hands and her joy at seeing plants grow and flourish.
“I had a lot of peace with the world and how I was living: working in the earth and eating what we grew. It just felt really right, and it felt like a really good rhythm of living. And I fell in love with that.”
While away she visited an urban farm in Chattanooga, Tennessee, inspiring her to try something similar in Grand Rapids.
With only a little bit of gardening experience, Heneveld began to read up on urban gardening and to reach out to the community. She has already garnered community support in the forms of donations, helping hands, and working together with local organizations, like Our Kitchen Table, on issues of food justice and sustainability. But the biggest donation Heneveld received came from her friend April Hadley and the vacant plot of land she owns where Barefoot Victory Garden now grows.
“Community is what makes this happen. If the community didn’t get involved, it wouldn’t have even started. This shows the importance of working together; no one can really do this on their own,” Heneveld says.
Community is a vital part of Heneveld’s hopes for the garden, as is evidenced by its description: ”This is not your typical ‘rent a plot, grow your own food’ community garden. Rather, you and anyone you know are invited to join us anytime we are building, planting and harvesting. This is a family garden. You are family.”
The actual gardening is just the beginning. At the center of Barefoot Victory Garden lies an open space suited perfectly for shared meals and for classes on gardening and sustainable living. Those interested can also partake in trips to West Michigan farms to better understand the local food system. All of this serves as a way for an urban people to reconnect with the land, to appreciate the feel of dirt on your hands and the satisfaction of producing something for the betterment of those around you.
That, says Heneveld, is what she is striving towards, “I’m just a person, and I’m just living and in that everyone has their own opportunity of teaching everyone else what they know and to share that. This is something that I’m really passionate about and it’s not much, but it’s something I can offer to my neighbors and the community.”
As author Marilyn Chandler McEntyre puts it, “we can understand things rightly only if we understand them over time– that is, in terms of their stories of conception, growth, development, and death.”
So as Barefoot Victory Garden begins to stem and sprout, come and understand the joy and grace as nature grows in the city.
To get involved contact barefootvictorygarden@gmail.com or visit barefootvictorygarden.wordpress.com .
