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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

 

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.

 

  • 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. 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.

  • 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

November 13, 2023
byLiving Earth Center

A few weeks ago Laura brought some leftover soup that her neighbor had made into the office to share with us for lunch. We all couldn't stop raving about how good it was and asked Laura to get us the recipe.

She did, and we are excited to share it with you here as well. It's the perfect fall comfort soup and makes your kitchen smell fantastic while you are cooking!

October 24, 2023
byLiving Earth Center

Our Digital Content Manager, Jacob Bases, has been hard at work putting together LEC's new podcast and the first episode is now available for your listening pleasure!

The episodes aim to tell stories that inspire and inform you to help get some dirt under your nails! The first episode features Jacob and Menari Body Works holistic aesthetician and herbalist Allegra Kay. She talks about her journey into working with natural beauty products and shares her thoughts as well as insights into some of her practices and plants from the area she uses in them...

Upcoming Events and Programs

Thursday, December 21, 2023
6:00 pm7:30 pm
Big Red Barn 170 Good Counsel Dr, Mankato, MN 56001

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