Garden + Trash Cans

One of the great things about our neighborhood is the many organizations and individual residents with which we get to partner. As part of the Healthy Neighborhoods Network, we had the chance to work on a project to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful garden.

Raise-Op, a Housing Co-Op located about 100 feet from us, purchased the lot on the corner of Birch and Pierce Streets and decided to let our neighbors decide how it should be used. They spoke, and then several other partners - St. Mary's Nutrition Center, Community Concepts and Take 2 YouthBuild -  and MANY  hard working residents got to work!  

Our teens helped survey the community, spread the new soil in the fall and then again on our Garden Opening and Soil Moving Party. Additionally, our 2nd Street Access Trash Can was installed on the corner, complete with a Dog Poop Bag Dispenser. 

We love partnering with those who are choosing to love our neighbors and work for their good, especially when it starts with listening to them first.  

When we think about what it looks like to love God with everything and love our neighbors as ourselves, it must start with a relationship and a willingness to listen. 

Who can you listen to today? How could you take a position of humility and learn from someone different than you? In doing this, you are starting the relationship that will create the space for you to not only love your neighbor but to be loved by them as well.