Living Earth Center| Sustainability| Education| Community

Featured Programs and Interests

Through our Community Food Connection Program, LEC directly connects people to the land and to healthy, organic produce. We are able to confront the issues of food insecurity and sovereignty in our community collaboratively through a multi-faceted approach. From youth educational programming to navigating ways for emerging growers to enter the local food economy, LEC works with our Community Partners to create pathways to food and land access and agency over food choices.

Community Garden

Located on the former farm site of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Living Earth Gardens provide a beautiful organic space where neighbors and family can gather, grow food, and nurture a self-sufficient empowered community.
Individual gardeners, as well as community partners (MY Place, MRCI, and MNSU College of Allied Health and Nursing's Eng-AGE-ment Garden) tend their plots together. Our garden is as diverse as Mankato itself – including everyone from native Minnesotans to new immigrants. Ten different languages are spoken by the 120+ gardeners.
Community Farm

Since 2021, LEC has worked in partnership with Blue Earth County to manage the Blue Earth County Community Farm. The Farm is home to our Food Donation Program. All food grown through this program is donated back to into the community. Under the guidance of our Farm Manager, both individuals and groups volunteer their time to tend to these plots.

Since 2022, the Farm has also been home to our Emerging Growers Program, which addresses food sovereignty in the Mankato area by partnering with community members who have expressed concern that they are unable to access culturally significant foods and/or want to grow larger amounts of produce but do not have access to land.
Events, Workshops and Programs

Living Earth Center provides opportunities where minds can be opened, ideas can be shared, and growth can take place through workshops, events, and conferences offered throughout the year. Honoring all spiritual traditions and paths, Living Earth Center also holds gatherings to honor seasonal transitions with ritual and reflection. Find out more by clicking here.
Get Involved

Living Earth Center believes that each person makes a valuable contribution to the world and systemic change can be traced all the way down to the individual level. Whether you are interested in donating, volunteering, gardening, learning or making a meaningful shift, you are helping to create a ripple effect within the local and greater Earth community.
Read more about how to get involved by clicking here.

Sharing Common Ground

Like a healthy ecosystem, we believe that everyone has something important and valuable to offer to our local and greater Earth community. We believe in bringing people with different backgrounds and strengths together to share common ground over food, learning and storytelling. We invite you to join us in celebrating nature's abundance and honoring our shared resilience and responsibility in the interconnection of everything.

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Historic Big Red Barn

News and Updates

October 17, 2024

Rush to Harvest Day of the Dead Marigolds Before First Frost

byLiving Earth Center

Members of LEC's staff/volunteers met with Old Town Day of the Dead Committee Member Justin Ek on Sunday, Oct. 13th to harvest the marigolds we were growing for the Day of the Dead Celebration before the first frost of the season. Marigolds are native to warmer climates and will not survive freezing temperatures.

These marigolds were planted in June in partnership with the Old Town Day of the Dead Committee. Mankato's celebration is scheduled for Saturday, October 26th, but with the temperatures going below freezing earlier this week it was necessary to harvest the marigolds last Sunday...

October 17, 2024

Remaining "Taste of the Garden" Produce Harvested for Donation

byLiving Earth Center

LEC's Taste of the Garden Fundraising Dinner was held September 13th, and the majority of the produce used in the dinner was grown in a plot at the Community Garden. That garden plot has continued to produce, growing various heirloom tomatoes, squash, greens, and more. It has continued to be tended by Garden Manager Mal and Garden Volunteer/Board Member Jim Ackil.

Jim and Mal have been making sure that the produce coming out of this plot is not going to waste...