Donavan Lawrence carefully navigates the rows of sprouting plants at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church community garden in Derby, Kansas, pausing to explain how corn, pole beans, and squash grow in concert using an indigenous farming technique called "the three sisters." It's a fitting metaphor for what Lawrence hopes the garden itself becomes: a place where people support one another, lean on each other's strengths, and build stronger bonds with their community. The Refugium Community Garden—named after those rare pockets of mild climate where plants survived the Ice Age—is in its second year, and the church is already thinking expansively: two beehives hum on the grounds, rainwater catchment systems are being installed, and vegetables grown here feed into Breakthrough Wichita, an organization serving people with mental health challenges.
The garden's growth reflects a growing urgency across Kansas. As grocery prices climb and federal food aid funding shrinks—the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled programs helping food banks and schools purchase local produce last year—communities are turning to soil and seeds as a lifeline. According to Hunger Free Kansas, one in seven Kansans are struggling with food insecurity, a number expected only to rise.
Yet community gardens are not a cure-all. Erika Debrick Kelly, executive director of Hunger Free Kansas, emphasizes that gardens work best as a supplement, paired with government food assistance, Meals on Wheels, and other safety-net programs. "A community garden itself is unlikely to provide all of the nutrition that a family or an individual needs to maintain their overall health," she said. What gardens do offer is flexibility: they can expand across rooftops, into school yards, even inside correctional facilities—scaling to whatever land is available.
The Salina Emergency Aid Food Bank has maintained a garden since 2019, growing cabbage, squash, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini on plots designed for the public, children, and people with mobility issues. Executive Director Karen Couch has seen firsthand how access to fresh produce shifts mindsets. "Rising grocery prices are causing a lot of folks to have to cut back, to look towards the more processed or packaged products," she said. "Having access to what I call 'real food,' and knowing that you can easily improve your health by growing food that is good for you is amazing." Children especially benefit: kids who might turn their noses up at asparagus at dinner suddenly want to pull it straight from the ground and taste it.
The gardens also serve as outdoor classrooms. Experts from the Kansas State University Extension Office mentor new gardeners, and children discover where zucchini actually comes from—not just supermarket shelves, but the earth beneath their feet.
Still, barriers remain. Many people lack gardening experience or confidence. Start-up costs can be steep. Hunger Free Kansas is addressing this through mini-grant programs designed to help organizations launch gardens and share proven techniques across the state. Even the growing season is no longer a limit: the Salina food bank has installed a hydroponic garden tower in their lobby, offering the promise of year-round locally grown produce.
What began as one church's vision of mutual support is becoming a statewide movement—small plots of land where food security, community resilience, and hope take root together.