In 2018, a group of organizations and individuals in Mt. Auburn formed the Mt. Auburn Gardens Initiative & Collaborative, affectionately called MAGIC. The leading organizations include the Mt. Auburn Chamber of Commerce, The Christ Hospital Health Network , The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Uptown Rental Properties, The Mac House, Mt. Auburn Baptist Church, The Center for Closing the Health Gap, Mt. Auburn Preparatory Academy (MAPA), Isiah 55 Inc., and the Mt. Auburn Community Development Corporation.
MAGIC’s goal is to activate green space and existing community gardens for healthy recreation activities, such as food production, creative placemaking, and larger resident-community engagement. The collaborative also works to address the socioeconomic, physical, behavioral, and healthcare factors that prevent access to affordable, nutritious foods for residents. What began as part of The Christ Hospital Health Network’s Healthier Mt. Auburn Task Force has grown into a dynamic partnership between neighborhood and regional organizations.
To-date, MAGIC has restored two community gardens—MAPA and Albion Place Community Garden—and created a Food Forest Pocket Park at 251 McGregor Ave on land donated by Uptown Rental Properties. Combined, the two gardens include 30 raised beds, while the park features a path, two benches, 16 fruit trees and three dozen berry shrubs throughout the public greenspace. MAGIC members, along with volunteers, have worked to clean up the sites, build new garden beds, plant vegetables, trees and shrubbery, and harvest food.
This year, MAGIC has already donated fresh produce to Queen City Kitchen in Walnut Hills, and will work with other pantries throughout the growing season. In addition, half a dozen community members pay a small fee—which helps fund the Albion Garden coordinator—to use the space for personal gardening.
“Our goal is to get food into the hands of those who need it, whether it's through senior programs at churches, students at the schools in the neighborhood, or the members at the Recovery Center of Hamilton County,” said Mike Mendralski, president of the Mt. Auburn Chamber of Commerce and Mt. Auburn Chamber Foundation.
In 2019, the gardens’ first fully functioning year, MAGIC focused on development and fundraising, worked to improve the soil quality, and built neighborhood participation. Although the program did not grow much food its first year, Alan Wight, who leads MAGIC and coordinates The Christ College of Nursing’s Service Learning Program, says they are on track to make donations to community organizations throughout 2020, starting with a recent harvest of onions, peas, garlic scapes, lettuce and radishes.
MAGIC’s success is in large part due to the many community partners and volunteers contributing to the effort. Local organizations have brought MAGIC to life, including the Mt. Auburn Community Council, Taft Elementary, The Civic Garden Center, The Giving Trees Initiative, William Howard Taft National Historic Site, and Groundwork Ohio River Valley. The majority of MAGIC’s volunteers and participating members come from these partner organizations, in addition to in-kind donations that support the effort, like lawn mowing services from the Christ Hospital Health Network.
“It's been the whole collaborative effort of so many different people who may not have ever met each other, just coming together and working towards a common goal,” said Mendralski.
One of MAGIC’s most prominent partners is The Mac House, an intentional living community located near the 251 Food Forest Pocket Park. Nick and Melissa Shaver, the house’s owners, have helped support MAGIC and encouraged their members to volunteer and participate, which Wight says has been a huge help. Melissa, a graphic designer, also worked with Wight and the group to produce a community and food asset map for the neighborhood.
“MAGIC is happening because we have amazing people like Dana Palamariu, associate pastor/reverend at Mt. Auburn Baptist church, who coordinates the Albion Place Community Garden, Rachel Huber, a Mac House resident who tends the MAPA site, and Sue Matz, who manages Taft Elementary’s garden,” said Wight.
In addition to MAGIC’s active partners, the group has leveraged community resources to help build and maintain the park and gardens, such as the Urban Agriculture funds made available through the City of Cincinnati’s Office of Environment and Sustainability, plant donations from The Meshewa Farm Foundation, funding from Giving Trees to install perennial edibles such as peaches, pears, apples, cherries, and serviceberries, as well as working with the Cincinnati Community ToolBank, which allows nonprofits to rent tools for large-scale volunteer efforts at the fraction of the cost of other rental groups.
In the end, MAGIC is a neighborhood beautification and engagement effort.
“This group serves as a hub for reinvigorating and starting gardens, food forests and beautification projects around the entire neighborhood,” said Wight.
Moving forward, MAGIC plans to install more fruit and nut trees at 251 McGregor and at the MAPA site gardens. The team is working on building additional infrastructure at MAPA, including a shed and more raised beds to be used for soil research by University of Cincinnati Environmental Studies students.
Perhaps the most exciting development is that MAGIC is now part of The Christ Hospital Health Networks’ strategic plan, which means additional financial support for the project. The Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences is also considering adding MAGIC to its strategic Plan.
Anyone interested in volunteering with MAGIC can contact Alan Wight at Robert.Wight@thechristcollege.edu.