How Springfield Community Gardens Helps with Urban Farms and Initiatives

Springfield Community Gardens (SCG) is redefining the connection people have with food through 15 community gardens, two urban farms, a food forest and a mix of initiatives around town. 

Maile Auterson, SCG’s founding executive director, went to college for the first time in her 40s. During a group project, two urban planning students eagerly invited her to join their team, and together, they partnered with locals to open a community garden in Grant Beach. At the same time, Auterson was learning about promise fatigue in her college classes—a concept describing how people become skeptical and lose trust after hearing too many unfulfilled promises, usually from organizations or leaders. “I needed to keep my word,” Auterson says. 

From that commitment, SCG was born in 2010, growing into an organization supported by 473 volunteers last year. They have given away millions of dollars worth of produce; they’ve helped 230 local farmers with USDA loans and technical assistance through workshops and farm visits; and they host about 40 workshops a year. “We grew big, but it’s because we kept our word and stayed connected to the neighborhoods we serve,” Auterson says. 

You may have spotted a garden in Midtown while driving past Cox North, or the one by Mother’s Brewing Company. Those are just two of the 15 community gardens in town supporting locals in a variety of ways. “We get so many requests to put in gardens,” Auterson says. Potential garden locations need to have good access to water and light, without too many power lines.

The gardens feature cedar beds, and each one operates a little differently depending on its garden leader. Some are fully communal, one donates 100% of its produce, others offer plot rentals for individuals to grow their own plants, and some are a hybrid. “I am super-proud of this garden,” says Stephanie Handy, SCG community outreach coordinator and Midtown community garden leader. “It is so beautiful in the summertime, but I am even more proud of the community we’ve built around the volunteers.” 

SCG also operates two urban farms, which are the next step from community gardens. They provide additional training for individuals interested in growing their own food, and they sell produce to institutions such as MaMa Jean’s Natural Market, schools and hospitals. “All the gardens and the urban farms are working together to create a local food system,” Auterson says. “Our vision since 2010 has been a community where everyone has access to healthy local food.” 

For more than 10 years, SCG has picked up produce from Ozarks Food Harvest weekly, delivering it to the Drew Lewis Foundation, the American Indian Center and a distribution site in the Weller neighborhood, where about 150 cars line up for produce boxes. 

To further support their mission of increasing access to healthy local food, SCG has also created the Rogers Community Food Forest in the Weller neighborhood where volunteers plant and maintain trees and bushes. It enhances the neighborhood by offering a space to teach people how to grow perennial food in their own yards while also providing free food for those passing through. On top of that, several community fridges around town are stocked with fresh produce from the gardens and local farmers, along with free seeds donated by Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. 

SCG offers four- and 16-week paid internships and volunteer opportunities for those pursuing careers in farming or gardening. Kaitlin Hewitt, who started as a volunteer in 2020, is now a flower farmer employed by SCG, selling to MaMa Jean’s and wholesale clients. “Every year she gets better and has greater skills, and then she passes on those skills to the internship program,” Auterson says. Eli Spears, a two-time intern, now assists Farm Coach Kevin Prather, giving Prather more time to teach in the field. 

Going forward, SCG is less interested in growth and more dedicated to deeper learning and connection with the people they serve. “What that means for us as an organization is we do a better job at what we’ve been given,” Austerson says. “There’s so much to do, and the stronger we get internally, I think we’re going to do more for the community.”