Little box, big mission.

A Little Free Garden creates an opportunity to provide food - a fundamental human need - to anyone who wants or needs it. The recommended placement in a front yard encourages people to come together to share in the joy of gardening together. A Little Free Garden fosters community through shared experience of enjoying fresh, locally-grown food. 

Think outside the box. 

We get it: there is nothing overtly special about the concept of a Little Free Garden. In fact, by most standards, it's just an ordinary box. But we believe that the real magic happens outside the garden and in the lives of the people and communities it calls home. Whether your Little Free Garden gives you the chance to talk with your neighbors, meet someone new on the sidewalk or share your harvest with friends, we believe that the connections created by growing food together is what sets our experience apart from the rest. 

A lot can happen with a little land

The Little Free Garden project was born and raised in Fargo-Moorhead, a region widely considered some of the most fertile land in the world. Our foundation as a community is deeply rooted in agriculture. For centuries, the lands that surround us were home to the Mdewakanton, Yanktonai and Sioux nations. These tribal communities were farmers, practicing sustainable agriculture, as well as hunting and foraging. After the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, these tribal communities were unsettled as immigrants from around the world traveled to the upper Midwest in search of free land. This Act resulted in great trauma for the Native peoples, displacing them from their sacred lands. It also gave a great advantage to those who benefited from the Homestead Act, and their ancestors today.

Today, most of us are unaware of this history, and what it takes to produce quality food. We believe the Little Free Garden project offers an opportunity to begin a conversation. We consider the gardens to represent a belief - a belief that land and food are basic human rights, and that they are something we must share. We also believe the gardens provide a starting place to imagine a new agricultural system - one in which all people have access to good food, power, decision making and opportunity.

Little Free Garden is a project of Food of the North (formally, Ugly Food of the North), an organization dedicated to creating a more sustainable food system in Fargo-Moorhead. Our goal is to foster communities committed to growing, sharing and cultivating food in small, raised-bed gardens designed to fit in residential spaces. The idea was born in Moorhead, Minn., and was brought to life by Jeff Knight, Megan Myrdal and Gia Rassier.