While we are proud of the outcomes of all our programs, what drives our work are the connections we build and our desire to foster a sense of place where all in our community feel welcome and at home. Participants of LEC’s programs have commented that being at one of our growing spaces has a positive effect on their physical and mental wellbeing. This sense of connection to each other and the land is at the heart of everything we do, and its positive reverberations can be felt throughout our community.

A 2003 study published in the American Journal of Public Heath found that, "Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize around other issues and build social capital also emerge through community gardens." Public Health Benefits of Community Gardens include but are not limited to, increased fruit and vegetable intake, access to local foods, community beautification, and an enhanced sense of community.

LEC Growing Spaces provide a place where community members can gather and grow food for themselves and their families, while nurturing a self-sufficient, empowered community. Individual gardeners as well as community partners (including MY Place, MRCI, and MNSU College of Allied Health and Nursing) currently share space at the Community Garden. LEC offers garden scholarships, available to anyone unable to pay the garden registration fee, ensuring that everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, has access to land to grow food. Our Community Garden has been referred to as a “mini United Nations” - 10 different languages are spoken by our gardeners.

A gardener who is a recent immigrant told our Executive Director that the gardens were the only place he and his family fest truly welcome and safe in Mankato. We have watched a Vietnam vet and a Hmong refugee, who have neighboring plots, develop a friendship over sharing gardening tips and extra bitter melon and zucchini.

Something happens when you step into the Community Gardens at Good Counsel Hill. It goes beyond the physical beauty of the space or the feeling of seeing so many people growing food together, to something more intangible.

There is a deep feeling of connection, to the land and to something larger than ourselves. This feeling doesn’t just happen anywhere, but it is felt at Good Counsel Hill, and we felt it the moment we first visited the Pohl Rd property. It is a sense of being grounded, a sense of being where you belong, a sense of being home.