Omaha Permaculture works with southeast Asian gardeners to feed community, gains inspiration from police protection during scary times
Juli Oberlander • October 1, 2020
Omaha Permaculture works with southeast Asian gardeners to feed community, gains inspiration from police protection during scary times
Photos courtesy of Gus von Roenn
To meet the goal of creating edible landscapes throughout the metro, Omaha Permaculture partners with organizations such as the City Planning Department, Omaha Municipal Land Bank and Habitat for Humanity to manage 17 properties across the Omaha area. The organization's mission is to establish permaculture gardens across the community where neighbors can gather to harvest organic food, build relationships and learn about the natural world.
In 2020, von Roenn says Omaha Permaculture has altered its focus to help feed the community during COVID-19 and improve race relations following the death of George Floyd.
"Omaha Permaculture adjusted to the pandemic world by focusing on a more aggressive food production model," von Roenn says. "We have succeeded in producing over 300 percent more food than previous years with all food being donated to food kitchens like Table Grace Cafe feeding the homeless."
Omaha Permaculture's executive director says the nonprofit creates community gardens on mostly North Omaha vacant lots through a community liaison, which the organization refers to as a community champion.
"This could be one person or a group," von Roenn says. "One of our best community champions is a group of Burmese, Thai and Karen gardeners through a mission church. We have been farming with these families for over ten years assisting with land access, water access, water tanks, growing their coveted Thai chili peppers in our greenhouses, plowing, groundhog relocation and other logistical urban farming hurdles."
This year, von Roenn says Omaha Permaculture expanded to assist three more Asian farming groups totaling more than five acres of land and feeding 16 families.
"We have been excited to tee up these very talented and proficient gardeners for over ten years," he says. "It is their proficient farming methods that inspired our nonprofit to form."
von Roenn says the team always welcomes questions over the phone from gardeners throughout the week. However, the nonprofit recently received phone calls from two separate gardeners of an alarming nature.
During the calls, the gardeners said a few of them had been robbed at knifepoint on a September morning and the previous evening. von Roenn says one of the gardeners even received a cut. The Omaha Police Department was called and an official report was filed.
"The two gardeners who called told us they did not feel safe returning to the 2 1/2 acre garden," von Roenn says. "The very next day, one of the gardeners observed police officers rounding up the perpetrators across the street. He was able to confirm that the guilty perpetrators were the ones in custody."
After confirming the story with the police, von Roenn says Omaha Permaculture worked with officers to place surveillance cameras for any future investigations. He praises the work of the Omaha Police in managing the incident.
"We are happy to announce that the Mission Church gardeners feel safe again to go out to their gardens thanks to the expedient work of our local Omaha Police Department," von Roenn says. "While the country is full of negative stories of how people of color are being mistreated, OP is excited to tell the story of this very positive outcome in the protection of our cherished world citizens who now call Omaha their home. Thank you to all who are making our community a healthy and safe place to live."
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