To Susan O’Connor and Crissie McMullan Copyright © 2010, 2014 by Jeremy N. Smith Foreword copyright © 2010, 2014 by Bill McKibben Photographs copyright © 2010, 2014 by Chad Harder and Sepp Jannotta Originally published as Growing a Garden City All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected]. Skyhorse® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Library of Congress cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Smith, Jeremy N. Growing a garden city: how farmers, first graders, counselors, troubled teens, foodies, a homeless shelter chef, single mothers, and more are transforming themselves and their neighborhoods through the intersection of local agriculture and community—and how you can, too/Jeremy N. Smith; foreword by Bill McKibben; photographs by Chad Harder and Sepp Jannotta. p. cm. “‘How It Works’ sections are based on and incorporate material originally prepared by Garden City Harvest.” ISBN 978-1-61608-108-9 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Community gardens—Montana—Missoula. 2. Community-supported agriculture—Montana—Missoula. I. Harder, Chad. II. Jannotta, Sepp. III. Title. SB457.3.S64 2010 635.09786’85dc22 2010012369 Cover design by Danielle Ceccolini Print ISBN: 978-1-62914-399-6 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220168-3 Printed in China Contents FOREWORD INTRODUCTION BREAKING GROUND The Founder: Josh Slotnick The Student: Cori Ash The Teacher: Neva Hassanein The Caretaker: Rick White How It Works: Student Farm GROWING A GARDEN CITY The Family: Gita Saedi Kiely and Jason Kiely The Organizer: Tim Hall How It Works: Community Gardens The Foodie: Jodi Allison-Bunnell The Farmer: Greg Price How It Works: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) THE NEW FACES OF LOCAL FOOD The First Graders: Rattlesnake School First Grade Class How It Works: Community Education The Teenager: Hannah Ellison The Counselor: Tim Ballard How It Works: Farm Work Therapy The Senior: Vinette Rupp The Single Mother: Kim Markuson The Homeless Shelter Chef: Jesse Schraufnagel The Food Bank Officer: Aaron Brock How It Works: Community Outreach AFTERWORD: HOW GARDEN CITY HARVEST WORKS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Foreword In January 2010, news came out that one in four American families experienced at least one day in 2009 when they were too short of money to buy the food they needed. That same week, different researchers released data revealing that a third of Americans were not just overweight but obese. It’s easy to get discouraged. But it’s also easy, and important, to get encouraged. This beautiful volume takes one small city, Missoula, Montana, and shows how it is learning to feed itself. Missoula residents are growing food so that even the neediest can eat and, in the process, are teaching their kids to grow the food so they’ll have a way of providing for their families in the future. This kind of urban/suburban farming builds community at least as effectively as soil, and that community is at least as important as the produce. If you’ve got a troubled teenager on your hands, he or she may well need to talk—but it will be easier to talk if you’re stacking pumpkins at the same time, or pulling potatoes, or weeding carrots. If you want to connect one neighbor with another, it turns out that few things work better than starting a garden in the middle of the block. Everyone can do something: compost, water, kibitz. The stories and pictures here speak for themselves. But it’s important to know that the larger positive trends are not confined to Missoula. After 150 years of decline, the number of farms in the country has started to grow rapidly in recent years. Most are small, producing local food for local people, not corn syrup for enormous processing factories. Young people are beginning to take up farming again in much greater numbers. There are still more prisoners than farmers in America—but the gap has begun to close. Farmers’ markets are the fastest-growing part of the national food economy, with sales steadily increasing. As you read this book, you’ll start to see that change has come not just because it’s needed, but because we’ve finally begun to understand that there’s something in us that needs to nurture and provide. Sociologists not long ago found that shoppers at farmers’ markets had ten times more conversations per visit than shoppers at supermarkets—it’s a different world we’ve begun to build. Or maybe rebuild—because each picture in this book would be familiar to an American of a