Growing Community Spirit Through a Community Garden

Whitefish Bay alumni Sam Odin and Case Bretzman never got a chance to participate in the Whitefish Bay Community Garden when it first launched in 2010.

Now that the two have graduated from college, the 2009 Bay grads are volunteering to facilitate and direct community garden activities in the school and in the community. Bretzman graduated this year from University of Minnesota with an agriculture education major, and Odin graduated from UW-Stevens Point with a social science major and a focus in food system studies.

"We believe in Whitefish Bay's communal spirit, and are convinced that our village is in an opportune position to contribute to growing a greener, more beautiful and healthy world," Odin said in an email. "...Having had the opportunity to delve into several farm/food-related projects, it is our intent to bring our passion home to our roots."

In 2010, Whitefish Bay senior Micah Leinbach and other members of the school's Earth Club planted the initial Whitefish Bay Community Garden. Odin and Bretzman hope to reinvorate the same sense of community and education that sprouted from the garden's first summer in Whitefish Bay.

As part of that effort, Odin, Bretzman and the Earth Club are inviting students, teachers and community members to attend a community meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in room 46 of Whitefish Bay High School with the goal of hashing out the good, bad, and ugly of past summers – and cultivate a new collective vision and goals for the future. 

"We want to start a conversation with folks in the Bay to see what we can do collaboratively to convert our garden "space" into a "place," Odin said. "A place we can all identify with, and that can be utilized for the growth of - not only beautiful and healthy food - but also our community as a whole."

At the meeting, Odin and Bretzman will introduce their ideas and recommendations for using the Community Garden as a medium for students and community members to expand their knowledge about growing, cooking, and preserving food in ways that are both healthy for them and their environment.

"Mainly, we're looking to talk about our community food system - from the point of view of the WFB Community Garden and perhaps on a broader scale as well - in order to propose and discuss the expansive opportunities that can be cultivated as a community out of our relationship with food," Odin said.