Norwood celebrated the planting of its first community garden on May 30. The one acre site is located adjacent to
Linden Pointe on the Lateral office campus.
More than 150 neighborhood residents and guests gathered to celebrate the moment and help plant the two-dozen beds. Eventually the garden will grow into some fifty 4’ x 10’ plots thanks to the generous land and materials donations from Al Neyer Inc.
The community garden will occupy land adjacent to the new office campus with retail. The location is also symbolic as it once was the site of a General Motors (GM) assembly operation that closed in 1987. The former brownfield site has literally become a greenfield.
“Our community was torn to shreds when GM closed – we didn’t know who we were or what we were going to do. In the past few years, we’ve turned the corner and can again look forward with renewed hope. This garden will help us work together as neighbors, to feed our own families and nourish those who are less fortunate,” says the executive director of
Norwood Service League, Lupe Gonzalez Hoyt.
Hoyt also hopes to create an opportunity where the harvest from some of the beds can be donated to local food pantries.
“The gardens are very important to our work on addressing obesity in the Latino population,” says Dwight Tillery, executive director of
The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati.
Also in attendance was former Cincinnati City Councilman and Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell now of SHP Leading Design, Mayor Thomas Williams of Norwood and State Senator Eric Kearney.
Tarbell’s SHP Leading Design is an architecture firm that has its regional headquarters in the office building there and assisted in the design of the community garden plot.
Mayor Williams continued the enthusiasm for the new community garden by declaring May 30 as “Norwood Community Garden Day” in the City by official proclamation.
Writer:
Randy SimesSource: Jennifer Sebranek, Al Neyer Inc.
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