The Heart & Soil People’s Garden is an oasis in the middle of a designated food desert where residents are more than a mile away from a grocery store or fresh food source. It’s also where seventh-generation farmer Nika Forté teaches women how to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs and then transform them into sauces, mixed salads and other dishes.
“I’m a firm believer in woman-empowerment,” says Forté, Heart & Soil’s garden director. “You teach a woman to grow, you teach a nation. You teach children to grow, you teach the next generation to grow.”
Thanks to a recent, historic donation, the garden and its programs will flourish even more.
Heart & Soil People's Garden Director and seventh-generation farmer Nika Forté examines earthworms with Ona McGordon.
Alison McGordon
Making an impact
Heart & Soil is among the beneficiaries of a donation by The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation to Local First Arizona of $1 million, the largest private donation in the nonprofit’s 21-year history.The donation will allow Local First to double the size of the urban garden to about a half-acre, and expand its programming to the Phoenix community, with about 60% earmarked for Heart & Soil over two years.
The donation has enabled the purchase of a neighboring lot that will host classrooms and restrooms and allow for more growing space.
“I want to engage more people and have more classes, build classrooms for kids and teach people how to grow in their own space for their home or wherever they’d like to,” Forté says.
The remaining funds will support Local First’s business accelerators Fuerza Local, Nivel Ejecutivo and We Rise, all of which are designed to help Spanish-speaking and Black entrepreneurs succeed.
The Parsons have been huge supporters of Local First for the last 10 years, says Local First founder and CEO Kimber Lanning. Two years ago, Lanning brought Renee to the garden. She met Forté, who pointed to a vacant dirt lot nearby and mentioned that it would be amazing to expand.
Renee met some of the women who grew produce in the garden and heard their personal stories of how it changed and impacted their lives and the surrounding community.
“She loved what Heart & Soul was,” Lanning says of the impression the garden left on Renee.
In a news release, Renee called the garden “an oasis of healing and health,” and said that “the garden is more than a place where food is grown, it is a hub for education, empowerment, safety, health and belonging.”
Alison McGordon's son Ona, 4, helps his mother tend her rows at Heart & Soil People's Garden. He planted this Swiss chard that is almost as tall as he is.
Alison McGordon
Growing the garden
Entrepreneur Bob Parsons is most well known as the founder of GoDaddy and Parsons Xtreme Golf. He and Renee, a business executive herself, launched their foundation in 2012.The garden was donated to Local First three years ago by members Patricia and Howard Fleischmann after they sold their business, Community Tire Pros & Auto Repair.
In 2022, Local First reached out to Forté, a garden instructor and beekeeper, to head the garden which also receives funding from a National Resources Conservation Service grant.
In Heart & Soil’s first growing season, it yielded over 1,000 pounds of produce. That weight doubled the next year.
A section of the garden is designated for growing produce that will be given to the community for free. Also, growers often donate surplus crops they are unable to use or sell. Along with donations from St. Vincent DePaul's urban farm, Heart & Soil was able to contribute 6,000 pounds to the onsite market for twice-a-month produce giveaways.
Lanning says the recent donation will add to a domino effect that Heart & Soil has already put into motion.
“Families can come here and get free fresh produce and learn how to grow food at home,” Lanning says. “It’s increasing food security.”
For a decade, Forté has specialized in urban farming in Arizona. For seven years, she’s been a beekeeper and started her own beekeeping school, the BaeHive Sisterhood.
Alison McCordon has grown produce at Heart & Soil People's Garden since 2022, and her hobby has become a family affair.
Alison McGordon
Learning opportunities
Before Alison McGordon started going to Heart & Soil in 2022, she hadn’t grown a single thing.Today, her rows at the garden have produced tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, squash, onions and herbs. She plants flowers to help with pollination. McGordon also broadened her cooking skills, seeking out recipes that utilize what she grows and how to use even the scraps — such as the tough stems from red chard — to make vegetable stock ensuring nothing goes to waste.
“I’ve learned a lot and it’s been a really cool learning experience,” says McGordon, who doesn’t live far from Heart & Soil.
McGordon’s husband helps with heavy labor-intensive tasks and her step-daughter, 24, works the market. Her 17-year-old son, who was homeschooled during a battle with leukemia, was able to earn credits to graduate this year thanks to his volunteer work at the garden.
McGordon brings her one-year-old baby with her as she tends to her rows, her 4-year-old son helps to water the crops and her mother ties up rosemary bundles.
“It’s definitely become a family affair for us,” McGordon says. “People say they want to do things. (Forté) really did it. She has created a safe space where you can come and learn, get support and have fun. She is an incredible woman.”
While Forté empowers others through Heart & Soil, she expressed appreciation to Local First for empowering her.
Forté credited Local First with reviving her ABC Mobile Education business, which partners with Local First to offer agricultural-based education workshops, many of them at Heart & Soil, after the pandemic. With this business up and running, she is able to dedicate time to maintaining Heart & Soil.
And with the recent donation, Forté is optimistic that Local First and Heart & Soil will be able to empower even more people to learn about their food and embrace how an urban garden can transform a community.
“It's something that was truly motivating and makes me feel like we are on the path we are supposed to be on,” Forté says. “It’s very humbling and motivating at the same time.”
