The UMCS GardenThe United Methodist Children’s Services (UMCS) community garden is located on 1918 N. 39th Street. The 1910 Sanborn fire insurance map shows a private residential building on this lot. This frame construction building had one floor and an attic above. The roof was covered with wood shingles and there was an open framed porch with wood shingles on the front of the building. At the rear of this property was a one-story, one room, wood frame building with a shingle roof and an adjoining frame-construction building with composite roofing. By 2011 and 2014, Milwaukee County records show that this property was owned by the city of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Redevelopment Corporation respectively. The building was demolished in 2012 (city assessment records showed a property value of zero dollars and aerial photograph shows that the plot was empty by 2013) before UMCS came into the picture to purchase the land on July 17, 2014.
This once-vacant plot has been transformed into a community garden when UMCS took ownership of it. Ms. Shantel Hendricks who works with the United Methodist Children's Services as a Community Health Worker took charge of the garden project on this plot in October 2019. The UMCS garden gives her joy, and she finds this space very therapeutic, “it is a great way to connect with people in the community and in general.” Ms. Hendricks describes the garden as a place where conversations around health and wealth take place. UMCS has multiple rental units on this block. The garden idea originated as a place to bring together renter families living in the 72 UMCS housing units. Six families showed interest in the project but currently there are three active families tending to the 14 garden beds. The garden has a bed of flowers, a bed with watermelon plans, and two beds filled with different kinds of tomatoes, green beans, peas, colored beans, mustard beans, curly kale, plain kale, carrots, radish, and potatoes. An adjoining bed is used for experimental gardening by the girls enrolled in the Pretty Girls In Education program. The produce harvested in this community garden are consumed by those families who tend to these plots. Sometimes, surplus produce is given to those who come to the UMCS food pantry. |
Ms. Shantell Hendricks talks about the UMCS garden
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