It all began with a conversation in the spring of 2012. Staff from two Lincoln-based nonprofits—Community Crops and Nature Explore—asked each other, “How can we make community gardens more active spaces?” and then, “How can we start to transform these spaces into catalysts for real community-building?”
From two to many…
Staff:
Board Members:
- Heather Fox
- Wally Graeber
- Terry Haverkost, chair
- Ingrid Kirst
- Annie LaRue
- Rev. Leanne Masters
- Jill Primak
- Melinda Taylor
Emeritus (with eternal gratitude):
Steering Committee
In consideration for the overall sustainability of the project, we have intentionally established a diverse multidisciplinary Steering Committee to ensure the project is consistently viewed through a necessary variety of lenses. Each member truly believes in the core purpose of the Food Forest: building both community and ecology through food, play, and education. We meet the evening of the 4th Monday each month (except December) and you are welcome to join us. Please simply send an email to southernheightsfoodforest@gmail.com for more information.
Land Acknowledgement
Two fundamental goals of the Southern Heights Food Forest are to repair our relationship with the land that nourishes us and to foster new and/ or deeper relationships within Lincoln. We have been granted the gift of stewarding two acres into their fullest integrity, and we do that work with joy, but we were not the first parents to love this land-child we have adopted. Long before Lincoln was Lincoln, the ancestors of some Lincolnites were already here and participating in a culture and an ecology that informed the soils, the plants, the animals, the insects, and all the other life upon which everything since has been overlaid. With great respect, we acknowledge that this project is located on or very near traditional Jiwere (Otoe-Missouria), Oceti-Sakowin (Sioux), Kaw (Kansa), Ponca, and Pari (Pawnee) lands.