East Dayton Community Gardens rework the land to feed generations 

In the background is a red open tent with a man grilling hamburgers and several people to the right of him. In the foreground is a table with several people sitting out it and smiling and blowing bubbles.
Annual summer potluck hosted by Mission of Mary Cooperative.

Written and edited by

Emiko Moore

Amid rows of vegetable gardens and fruit trees, residents of Dayton’s Twin Towers neighborhood gathered on a clear summer evening to join in the annual summer potluck hosted by the Mission of Mary Cooperative also known as MMC.  

Wafts of smoky grilled hamburgers drifted through the air as guests enjoyed colorful dishes prepared by a local chef who used fresh fruits and vegetables from the Twin Towers gardens, something that was not always readily available nor accessible for the residents.  

“We try to throw events like that to build community or cultivating community with these growers and neighbors,” says Michael Schulz, the co-founder and executive director of the MMC, a non-profit dedicated to feeding Twin Towers neighbors through urban community gardens, land restoration and education.  

A man in a cowboy hat to walks up a row of fruit trees.
Rows of fruit trees planted by MMC in Lincoln Hill Garden.

University of Dayton graduates find their roots in Twin Towers  

Right after graduating from the University of Dayton in 2007, Shulz and three fellow Flyers graduates who follow the Marianists tradition moved into Twin Towers and began to build relationships.  

Living in the community, they became aware of some of the history and the challenges for many neighbors. Once a thriving area in the 1950’s, Twin Towers was economically devastated as industries left, and construction of US Route 35 further separated the community from Dayton.   

While the four roommates grew their own food or bought it from farmers markets, they began to see that their neighbors did not have the same access to fresh produce. For many, especially those with limited means of transportation, the choices were often convenience stores or fast food.  

Over time, the seeds of ideas for community gardens began to germinate. From one community garden in 2009, they’ve now expanded to six urban farming plots on four acres of land.  

MMC also offers two free programs for residents who want to grow their own food. One is community garden spaces for those who do not have a yard. The second one is a backyard garden program in which MMC builds the resident a garden plot in their yard and supplies seeds and tools.   

A dream come true for one resident  

Cecily Foster, a nurse and mother of three, has always wanted a garden. She recalls when growing up, “There were times when we had no food in the house, and we had a neighbor with a garden, and she would give us our vegetables. I ate ’em as fried green tomatoes as a kid.”  

Foster continued, “But I always remember that if you don’t have anything else, you can have your garden. You can go outside. So, I’ve always just wanted that security as well to know if COVID hit or something else hit, I can go outside and feed my family.      

a woman and her daughter picking cucumbers from together.
Cecily Foster and her daughter picking cucumbers from her garden.

Foster was thrilled when MMC built a garden in her backyard and her passion for gardening has taken off. Walking around her vegetable garden, Foster shared the names she gave some of her plants, “So we have our golden area. This is everyone’s favorite friend, Jose Jalapeno. Everyone loves Jose Jalapeno. We just pulled some off of him, but he has a baby growing right there.”   

A mother and her two children getting ready to pick vegetables from their garden
Cecily Foster in garden with her children.

Foster continues to introduce new healthier food options to her children. “So, these are things we just never, ever, ever had access to. They’ve never seen all these vegetables. My refrigerator is over half vegetables right now. I’ve never been able to say that in my entire adult life.” explains Foster.       

And for Foster the benefits of her backyard garden are three-fold; she is expanding her culinary repertoire, cutting her grocery bill in half, and is finding more joy.  

A vegetable garden to the left of picture, a women in the middle with a purple shirt pointing to her garden and a woman in a mint green shirt to the right.
Cecily Foster is excited as she shows her vegetable and flower garden to Brick by Brick’s Emiko Moore.

“And I believe if you ask my children, when I started this garden…I started becoming a better person. They started seeing me more happy and going outside and things. So, it was a blessing that I didn’t even realize I needed,” says Foster. 

Helping neighbors access higher quality foods  

The quality of food greatly impacts long term health and not all foods are equal, explains  Shulz.  “So, when you ask yourself, ‘why do people in poverty have higher rates of chronic disease, obesity?’ It’s not because they want that, but the food that’s accessible to ’em for survival is not help in their health outcomes.”  

Dan Lombardo, MMC’s Education and Outreach Coordinator agrees, “If you can think of any way that a body can fail, food insecurity will make it fail harder, faster and worse.”     

Seven adults in t-shirts standing in front of a garage with vegetable painted on the garage.
Mission of Mary Cooperative team members.

“We use sustainable regenerative practices because what we’ve learned is the healthier your soil is and the way you actually grow, the healthier your produce is, the more nutrient density it has, also the better it tastes. And that’s a big win for the community we’re serving,” says Shulz.  

Transforming the land, one garden at a time  

When Shulz and his roommates first moved into the area, they saw a lot of unused land in Twin Towers. Some land had been vacant for 40 years, where people would dump trash, making it fertile ground for illicit activities which was a major safety concern for the neighbors.     

Working to improve the area and create gardens to grow fruits and vegetables, MMC obtained access to vacant property, improved the soil health, and built 169 garden beds across 6 sites.  

Today, with the help of volunteers and educational programs, MMC provides over 70,000 pounds of fresh produce annually to the community. In addition, their weekly farmer’s market and their boxed produce subscription known as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), provides revenue to the organization.  

In the back of the picture are a young man and woman sitting behind a table with fresh and colorful vegetables on both sides.
MMC weekly farmers market and boxed produce subscriptions.

Over a hundred boxes are packed for families weekly who come pick them up, and MMC includes recipes for produce in season. Twin Towers residents get reduced rates and can use federal assistance through SNAP or EBT to pay.  

And adjacent to one of MMC’s gardens called the Lincoln Hill Gardens, MMC will operate an outdoor eco-lab for children age 0-5 who attend the newly built Lincoln Hill Early Leaning Center.   

By teaching hundreds of children and families how to grow their own food, Shulz says they have made a generational impact.  “But if we’ve empowered some neighbors to be servant leaders as well, to take ownership of their own community and try to make a difference, I think that’s another long-lasting impact to help make that programming sustainable,” says Schulz.  

And Cecily Foster better understands the importance of nurturing the land for food. “I no longer, especially with the garden, … just look at this as my house. I’m like, this is our land. We have to work the land. What are you going to do to help the land?” 

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Thank you for taking the time to read this article. We hope you learned more about our local community gardens. Please let us know your thoughts about community gardens/urban gardens as one solution to the challenges of access to healthy foods in certain areas.

Emiko Moore – Multi-Media Journalist

Emiko Moore is a graduate of Ohio State University has been a freelance producer for NBC News for the last 20 years, covering stories in southwest Ohio and in the tri-state area. She also hosted The Lebanon City Show and was a print journalist for the Western Star, focusing on Warren County. Prior to moving back to her hometown of Lebanon, OH, she worked in NYC for NBC TODAY and NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation. As a volunteer with Building Bridges Community Conversations, Ishinomaki Playground Project, and Miller Ecological Park, she believes it takes continuous work to strengthen communities. She is excited about journalism that explores the issues while highlighting solutions to bring about positive change.