Gardening Tips: Fairbanks garden affirms life through food one sprout at a time

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - For many, the tiny plot of land nestled between 11th and 12th avenue in Fairbanks is more than just a garden.

“[Stone Soup Garden] is a place for people to come and sit and have a place of belonging,” the Vista Garden Coordinator, Daisy Morotti said, adding “A lot of people end up connecting to the garden and they will help clean up if they see trash. They’ll help if they see people trying to hurt the garden.”

Built by volunteers in 2015, the Stone Soup Garden grows around 2-thousand pounds of food for the city’s most at-risk.

“Access to fresh grown produce is not available for everybody. At the Breadline Stone Soup we serve vulnerable populations, we serve oppressed populations, we serve homeless populations, and a lot of those people don’t have access to fresh produce.” Sean Enfield, the Stone Soup Community Garden Manager explained.

“Out here they can get that on their own or via the kitchen in the morning. The mission of the Breadline is just to feed people and affirm their life through food, and there is no better way to do that than through a fresh crop.” Enfield said.

The food harvested from Stone Soup Garden goes to the Bread Line, which is a non-profit that runs a café serving free nutritious breakfasts and sack lunches. Some of the food also goes to the elderly and those with disabilities.

“Because we grow more than our chefs can use, we will make fresh salads for the assisted living facilities because meals on wheels can only do so much,” Morotti said. “We make these salads and we deliver them so the older people in our community can have fresh vegetables they probably normally wouldn’t get.”

The Stone Soup Garden and the Breadline are run mostly off of volunteers -- and with the coronavirus keeping space limited in the café, there is twice as much food packaging being done.

“I think we are doing double the food now just because we are having to package the morning meals plus meals to go for people to eat,” Enfield said. “[At] the Breadline we are volunteer run pretty much. We have servings from 7:30 to 9:30 in the morning. We always need people to help serve. Especially now during the pandemic, a lot of our regular volunteers are quarantining or don’t feel as comfortable coming out.”

If you would like to volunteer you can go to brealineak.org or call (907) 452-1974 to get more information.

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