MOUNT VERNON — Walt Lewis has lived in Mount Vernon for nearly 40 years, and in the same house for 36 years.
He appreciates the Mount Vernon community working together toward one common goal — and he’s hoping that goal can be creating a community garden at the right-of-way at 1009 E. Vine Street, aimed at assisting local food pantries. The land is currently owned by AEP.
Lewis, the resource navigator at United Way of Knox County, began the Leadership Knox class sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and took on the community garden as a class project — but it didn’t come to fruition.
In early March, an ad hoc committee was formed to see if a community garden could actually be created.
Before going “all-in,” Lewis had to determine if there was a purpose, buy-in from locals and if the garden would be sustainable.
The community garden committee developed the idea of blended ownership, where separate organizations could share a plot during a particular season.
“For instance, Interchurch Social Services would maintain a given plot from spring planting through harvest to winterizing the plot,” Lewis said.
“I’m fond of saying that there is much water to paddle from here to there, which would be the case for planting this community garden. However, with planning and support of community partners, the paddling could be shared.”
In partnership with United Way, the community garden committee could receive potential grant funding, Lewis said.
Lewis said he also attended a recent presentation by the Area Development Foundation, where he learned one of the critical components for the city’s economic development is having a healthy, recreational and vibrant neighborhood.
“Our neighborhood is primed for a community garden but beyond feelings, I’m impressed by the collection of individuals, social agencies, government agencies, schools, businesses and community associations who can help and would love to see this community garden succeed,” Lewis said.
When council member Amber Keener asked for an update on the potential lease agreement with AEP, City Safety Service Director Rick Dzik said Mount Vernon’s local AEP representative approved the agreement with minor changes. Council should have a vote on the lease at the next regular meeting.
The only payment toward the lease is insurance coverage, which would be $50 a year. It would cost around $1,800 to run water to the site, too.
One of Keener’s goals, who sits on the parks and lands committee, is to rebuild the city’s parks and recreation program. Community gardens became one method of accomplishing this goal.
A vision for the proposed E. Vine Street garden is giving the produce away to food-insecure organizations and local food banks, such as CHOMP Ministries, Keener said.
“But the whole point of this community garden would be that the people who are gardening there would be walking there,” Keener said. “We’ve even talked about partnering with the school and those students would walk there.
“The goal is not to bring more car traffic down here, but rather simply to support the neighborhood that’s already present.”
