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The long-empty lot at the corner of Madison and Grove in Oak Park is now a community garden.
Root Riot, an Austin group that gives urban residents the chance to learn about growing their own food, is assigning garden plots at 838 Madison, the lot between Leona’s restaurant and the vacant Comcast building.
The founders of Root Riot, Amy Beltemacchi and Seamus Ford, have been working to raise what they call “food consciousness” in the local community and are glad to have another venue from which to teach.
“We are highly literate with technology and computers, but we are functionally illiterate with growing our own food.” says Ford. “Very few people know how to grow their own food.”
The lot at Madison and Grove was donated to the group by the owner. “It really is a gift because we didn’t have the money to lease it,” says Beltemacchi, who says that she and Ford keep looking for ways to address the matter of growing food locally.
One of Root Riot’s goals is to draw diverse groups of people together for a common purpose. And with more than 30 plots already spoken for at this location, they’re encouraged.
“We wanted to create this for people to get away from their TV sets and get related with other people and we are confident that new friendships will be created with this,” Ford says.
The village’s sustainability manager, K.C. Poulos, got on board with this project last August. She was beginning to get frustrated with her search for empty lots and then she received an e-mail. “The property owner said she couldn’t afford her property and wanted to have a community garden there,” Poulos said.
After that, everything else seemed to fall right into place.
“We [the village] were there to assist the garden in any way. Public Works brought over loads of woodchips, donated planters and a 1,000 galloon water tank,” Poulos said.
Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory also donated several hundred plants, a mixture of flowers, vegetables and herbs.
“We have annual plant sale in the spring and usually have leftover plants. We like to give them to the community,” said Jackie Paine, director of the conservatory, “We wanted to donate to their success.”
Root Riot has another location in the Austin area of Chicago, at 500 N. Waller. It is also right near Ford’s home in the city and has been leased for three years now. The organization named that location Harambee, which means “all pull together” in Swahili.
Root Riot was given a grant by Youth Guidance through their job program. “We can probably generate about 10 jobs for kids right out of high school or college,” says Ford.
All the plots at Root Riot’s Madison location have been rented out, however you can put your name on a waiting list should someone decide not to use their space.
Plots are still available at Root Riot’s Harambee location in Austin. Different prices and memberships are available. For details, check Root Riot’s Web site.