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Living Earth Center brings people of all traditions together to cultivate common ground and seek justice through education, encounter, and community agriculture.

Featured Programs and Interests

 

Though 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.

 

  • 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 diverse as Mankato itself – including everyone from native Minnesotans to new immigrants. Ten different languages are spoken by the 120+ gardeners.

  • 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 to partners such as ECHO Food Shelf, FOCP Summer Food Program, and CADA House. Under the guidance of our Farm Manager, both individuals and groups volunteer their time to tend to these plots.

  • Living Earth Center provides opportunities where minds can be opened, ideas can be shared, and growth can take place through series of 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.

  • 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 meaningful shift, you are helping to create a ripple effect within the local and greater Earth community.
    Read more.

Sharing Common Ground

Like a healthy eco-system, 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 story-telling. We invite you to join us in celebrating nature's abundance and honoring our shared resilience and responsibility in the interconnection of everything. 

News and Updates

January 20, 2023
byLiving Earth Center

As 2023 begins we are excited to announce our Farm and Garden Managers for this coming growing season.

January 19, 2023
byMadison Vandersee

This recipe makes a delicious and easy focaccia bread, it is perfect to enjoy with soup, as a sandwich, or as a side dish to your favorite meals. It's a recipe that I found online a few years ago and have tweaked over the years to the recipe shared below. The "herbs of choice" is a chance for you to give the bread your own personal spin. This time I topped mine with garlic, basil, parsley, and oregano.

Upcoming Events and Programs

Thursday, February 9, 2023
7:00 pm8:30 pm
Ostrander Hall, Minnesota State University Mankato, 620 South Road, Mankato, MN 56001

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