Matti Mattila/Flikr

By: Jason Wachter

ST. JOSEPH — Angelina Lukere had two criteria in 2004 when moving from Sudan to St. Cloud.

She wanted good schools for her family. And she needed a place to garden.

She dressed in a white and pink dress as she worked barefoot Monday afternoon in one of the Central Minnesota Sustainability Project’s three market gardens.

The market gardens started this spring near individual plots at the nonprofit’s community gardens. The market gardens are larger and all the produce will be sold, said Rick Miller, the project’s founder. The nonprofit is in discussion with local restaurants and a co-op to sell the products, he said.

All the money will be given to the farmers working the land.

“The ultimate goal is to better the community,” Miller said. “It’s a tough road to hoe if you live in an apartment building. You have no land and you have no job perspectives.”

Lukere tended to cowpeas, onions, peppers and tomatoes. She prides herself on using all the land. Walkways are perfect for a batch of cowpeas, she said.

The woman smiled as her two granddaughters, ages 2 and 4, picked rocks from the dry soil. Lukere lives in a townhouse and doesn’t have land. A friend lets her garden in his backyard. She also has an individual plot at a community garden.

But she needed more room to plant everything she wanted, she said. Her smile never leaves her face while she works.

“I’m happy,” she said. “I was raised on the farm. I love gardening. It relaxes me.”

Six families, including Lukere, work the St. Joseph gardens. The Order of St. Benedict owns the land and allows the sustainability project to use it. Each garden is 4,000 square feet.

The Cold Spring garden is 7,000 square feet and farmed by three generations of a family. Catholic Charities owns the land and has donated the garden space.

Miller wants the gardens to eventually result in steady employment, especially for those immigrating here.

“New Americans have a tougher road to climb when it comes to economic stability,” he said. “We’re moving forward.”

Brianda Cediel, executive director of the nonprofit, Hands Across the World, brought four students Monday to the garden. The nonprofit helps immigrants assimilate to American culture. The students, one from Mexico and three from Somalia, all farmed in their native countries.

She watched as a Somali student weeded the land. The garden introduces the cultures’ farming styles. Everyone learns from each other, she said.

She marvels at the way the older man moved dirt with a hoe. He worked quickly barefoot.

“It’s like a dance,” Cediel said. “He’s dancing with the soil. He is so excited.”

She hopes the collaboration with the sustainability project will result in local farmers hiring her students as workers.

“The whole community will benefit from this,” she said.

Story originally appeared at: St. Cloud TIMES