The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

September 5, 2010

School Sisters get garden tool grant

The Free Press

MANKATO — The School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Center for Earth Spirituality and Rural Ministry has been awarded a $2,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant for garden tool replacement for the Good Counsel Community Gardens.

A panel of student representatives from area high schools and universities reviewed applications and determined the allocation of funds to organizations with ideas that would help “move our communities forward.”

The project is titled “Access to nutritious food is a universal human right: We got land, seed & hands. We need tools!”

Mankato’s Garden at Good Council, an organic community garden run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, benefits 130 families and individuals by letting them grow their own food inexpensively. They aim for open access to quality food on a vibrant common ground.

The tool refresh grant was written by community gardener Anika Cristwell, who recently lost her job and lives below the poverty line.

“Like 19 percent of Mankato individuals, I live below the poverty line,” wrote Cristwell in the grant application. “As Americans, we spend 10 percent of our pay on food. I lost my job. What’s 10 percent of 0? ... The Garden empowers me to live with dignity.”

Last year the sisters and the Center for Earth Spirituality doubled the number of plots. Newcomers came right away, but that put an added burden on the tool supply.

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