Wichita Food Co-op local growers of organic produce and livestock

Woman's project transforms city lot, encourages neighbors to cooperate
BY JOE STUMPE
The Wichita Eagle
August 20, 2008

Susan Schoket put her foot on a pitchfork and pushed into the soil. Three years ago, the move might have turned up an empty syringe or liquor bottle in this lot on South Main. Last weekend, it was a crop of new potatoes.

City Roots, a program that Schoket started three years ago to turn unused inner-city land into productive garden spots, is bearing fruit, or at least vegetables.

"People said it can't be done," Schoket said. "I said, 'You don't tell me that.' "

The project will mark its third birthday with a tour of six gardens tonight. It's free and open to the public.

Like those new potatoes on South Main, City Roots has grown -- from one garden in 2006 to eight last year to a dozen this summer.

Schoket acknowledges that the project hasn't been a hit with some of the people it's intended to serve and is in need of more money and volunteers, but she seems undeterred.

Schoket, 52, is a former teacher at Wichita West High School who now works for the Right Thing, a private agency that serves mentally and developmentally disabled people.

She started City Roots after talking with Cori Adair, the Right Thing's owner. Adair gives Schoket time off her job to work on City Roots.

"She's just a go-getter," Adair said. "Wherever she goes she starts talking about her project to anyone who will listen and gets people on board."

Schoket got nonprofit status for City Roots' parent organization, Infinite Growth Opportunities, in 2006. Since then, she has secured a $9,330 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation and donations of things like land, seeds, lumber and labor.

She says City Roots could use more help to finish a greenhouse, where it will be able to start more plants from seed. She might be further along if she hadn't broken her leg last summer while unloading a tiller.

From the start, Schoket has hoped the gardens would serve people with a variety of needs and also be places where neighbors could get to know each other.

"I kind of like the idea of gardening, but I really like the idea of teaching people how to fish rather than giving them a fish," Schoket said.

The Main Street garden, the first, is next to Oxford House, a self-governed home for recovering alcoholics. Others have gone in next to the Senior Center on Walnut and the Dunbar Community Center on Cleveland. In a garden near the Arkansas River, a church group has gardened with young criminal offenders.

Last Saturday, several current and former Oxford House residents worked in the garden on South Main, including Bethany Ballard, 27, who lived there several years ago.

"It's therapeutic," Ballard said. "I haven't eaten much out of it, but I'm hoping to grab something today."

Tony Giardina, who owns the lot and the building rented by Oxford House, said he's glad to donate space for a productive use.

But both he and Schoket expressed puzzlement that more neighbors haven't participated.

"I don't know if the neighbors know there isn't a catch and they can come in here," said Giardina, who also helps with the garden.

Schoket said part of the problem may be the transient population of some neighborhoods. Many young people have no experience gardening, she said.

Then there's the simple fact that some "people are opposed to work," she said. "They really are.

"They don't know if you get out and get dirty, you feel better."

Community garden tour

If you go

Here's a schedule for tonight's tour of City Roots gardens. Food made from produce grown in the gardens will be served at the first, third and last stops.

6 p.m. --16th and Fairmount
6:20 p.m. --Ninth and Madison
6:40 p.m. --Eighth and Cleveland
7:05 p.m. --Walnut and Texas
7:30 p.m. --Main and Indianapolis
7:50 p.m. --Waco and Gilbert

For more information about City Roots, call 316-204-3985.

See a slide show attached to this story at Kansas.com.

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