Several local organizations to team up on Mound View garden project

Officials hope a garden in the Mound View neighborhood will help ease the pain of the recent decision to repurpose Polk Elementary.

The Mound View Neighborhood Association, Matthew 25, the Cedar Rapids school district, and Coe College are teaming up on a project to build a community garden at 1424 B Ave. NE, according to a release. The groups are soliciting the help of local businesses, organizations, and individuals in constructing the garden.

On Sunday June 3 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., the groups will be hosting the Build Out for the garden, where volunteers can move dirt, distribute water, and help wherever necessary. Officials are also accepting monetary and supply donations for the event.

Staff members with Matthew 25 -- an organization that has been in Cedar Rapids for six years and aides lower income neighborhoods with building and urban farming -- will harvest the garden throughout the growing season and the food the garden provides will be given to families of the Mound View neighborhood, volunteers, and even local restaurants. Clint Twedt-Ball, the co-executive director at Matthew 25, said produce planted in the garden will include "everything you can imagine"-- melons, tomatoes, squash, broccoli, kale, and edamame.

Twedt-Ball, the co-executive director at Matthew 25 said officials from the neighborhood association, Polk Elementary parents, and Cedar Rapids school board member Mary Meisterling originally asked for the group's help in the garden project.

"I think it's important for a variety of reasons," Twedt-Ball said. "It's a place where you can build community. That's important in low income areas, especially. We're shifting the food culture. To provide a place of hope and beauty is really important."

But beyond the benefits to the neighborhood, Twedt-Ball said stressing the significance of locally-grown food is also important.

"We're the breadbasket of the nation, but 85 percent of our food is imported," he said. "It's important for us to get back to people knowing how to grow and use fresh local foods."