It Starts With a Seed: How a Grand Forks Garden is Growing Community, Culture, and Connection

In Grand Forks, North Dakota, a garden is quietly changing how people grow, gather, and connect.

It began in spring 2025, when Mary Moroney-Fernandez—a multilingual educator at Winship Elementary and a student at the University of North Dakota—reached out to Blue Zones Project Grand Forks with a vision. Her idea was simple: build a community garden that would nourish more than just bodies. She wanted a space where immigrant and multilingual families could plant culturally meaningful foods, learn new skills, and spend time outside together.

With the support of Blue Zones Project Grand Forks staff, the University of North Dakota’s Gro.UND program, along with a circle of volunteers and funders, that idea has grown into a thriving, four-plot garden tended by local families and bursting with shared purpose.

A Garden with a Purpose

Unlike many school or neighborhood gardens, this project was designed with cultural relevance at its core. Mary envisioned a space that reflected the food traditions of the families involved, many of whom speak multiple languages or come from diverse cultural backgrounds. The garden is a place where familiar herbs, vegetables, and recipes bring comfort and pride to community members, and where trying something new is a shared adventure.

Throughout the summer, garden education sessions have included youth groups like the Girl Scouts, and Winship Elementary students are participating in fall programming. As children and adults weed, water, harvest, and cook side by side, they aren’t just growing food—they’re building confidence, skills, and relationships.

This approach reflects key principles from the blue zones, the world’s longest-living, healthiest communities. In every blue zones region, from Okinawa to Nicoya, meals are deeply social and plant-forward, and ingredients are often grown right in the backyard. Access to fresh, healthy, and culturally meaningful food is foundational to community well-being.

The Blue Zones Connection

Blue Zones Project Grand Forks staff, including Dawn Rognerud and Shilo Previti, played a critical role in bringing the garden to life. They worked closely with Mary to design the layout, assist with purchasing supplies, schedule group planting days, and connect with local media to tell the garden’s story.

On May 30, 2025, more than 20 volunteers from the Grand Forks Air Base helped establish the garden during a five-hour work session. Additional community gardening days were hosted in June and July, with more planned throughout the growing season.

Ten families now share responsibility for maintaining the space, rotating garden care responsibilities 3-5 days per week, a rhythm that reflects the Blue Zones Power 9® principle of Move Naturally, where physical activity is integrated into daily life rather than separated from it.

It also embodies Right Tribe, another Blue Zones Power 9 principle that emphasizes the power of strong, supportive social circles. Research shows that who you surround yourself with plays a major role in long-term health, and in Grand Forks, the garden is becoming a place where neighbors become teammates.

Spotlight on the People Behind the Garden

While Mary serves as the project lead, the effort is truly a team endeavor. She has received support from:

• University of North Dakota’s Gro.UND program
• A grant from the ND Space Consortium
• A fellowship through her studies
• Dozens of community donors and volunteers
• Guidance and coverage by Blue Zones Project Grand Forks

Each participant brings something different to the table: tools, labor, seeds, recipes, stories, and in return, they all leave with something more than food. They leave with a sense of shared ownership and belonging.

As part of her fellowship, Mary is also conducting ongoing research on the impacts of the garden project. The results will help inform future seasons and could strengthen the case for permanent funding.

Looking Ahead

The garden is already growing more than produce—it’s growing plans. Winship Elementary students will visit the garden during the school year, and additional fall events are already on the calendar. With interest and momentum building, the project’s next phase is focused on long-term sustainability.

Thomasine Heitkamp, who helps oversee the Gail Hand Fund for Grand Forks Public Schools, has expressed interest in supporting the garden in future years. Blue Zones Project Grand Forks covered rental fees in 2025, but the goal is to secure dedicated funding that keeps the garden accessible and growing year after year.

Where Community Takes Root

In the original blue zones regions, community health isn’t created in clinics, it’s grown in gardens, shared in kitchens, and built through daily interactions between people who care for each other. The simple act of tending a garden can strengthen the body, calm the mind, and bring people together.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Grand Forks.

With a shared mission and many hands, Mary and her team have created more than a garden. They’ve created a living, growing expression of what it means to belong.