The Dwight Street Garden is a practice in community care, environmental justice, and self-determination.

When we built the Dwight Street Garden on a vacant lot in Holyoke, we were two years into a pandemic in a city where fresh food is already hard to come by. We wanted to get good food out to our neighbors and also have a safe space to gather outdoors.

The garden still produces hundreds of pounds of food each season and hosts organizing meetings for members new and old.

And it’s become so much more than that.

In a world focused on extracting labor and resources for profit, the garden is a place where neighbors volunteer time and take only what they need, giving the rest away.

In a world where too many feel isolated and alone, the garden is a place to meet and get to know one another.

In a world where an elite few make decisions about our lives behind closed doors, neighbors are practicing governing ourselves with each decision about the garden and its future.

And in a world threatened by a changing climate and rising food costs, the garden is a place to grow our own food if and when we need it.

At the Dwight Street Garden, we are building the future we want to live in together.