MILWAUKEE — Alice’s Garden is celebrating five decades in Milwaukee. 

The 2.2 acre urban farm located on Milwaukee’s north side has been a community staple for the past 50 years. It was established to create a space for the community to learn how to grow their own healthy food.

Alice’s Garden provides models of regenerative farming, community cultural development, and economic agricultural enterprises for the global landscape.

Executive Director Venice Williams said Alice’s Garden was named in honor after Alice Meade-Taylor. 

Meade-Taylor was the former Executive Director of Milwaukee County Extension. Meade-Tylor’s vision for building neighborhoods and nurturing people included gardening programs for children, youth and their families.

“It’s an honor for me to live what Alice loved so much about this project and to take it to a different level with so many community partners,” said Williams.

There are 100 garden plots that represent 80 families or community organizations. Fifty years later, Williams said they are still using gardening to help positively impact people’s quality of life. 

“In the African-American community, we’ve always been generous when it comes to food,” said Williams. “Food knowledge, how to grow it and also how to prepare it.” 

Vendors like Zakiya Courtney have been a part of garden efforts for a few years. 

She’s head chef at Vegan Soul in Milwaukee and takes pride in being able to offer healthier options right at the garden. She has a plot at the garden and is able to take some of her spices straight from it. 

“It gives me an opportunity to expose people who might not otherwise be exposed to vegan food,” said Courtney. 

She calls Alice’s Garden an oasis, and said it provides life in more ways than one. 

“In the midst of all the turmoil and everything else that goes on in the city… when you’re here in the garden, you’re in a place that the world ought to look like,” she said. 

Williams said it is people like Courtney that help make the garden successful. 

“Alice’s Garden is really about encouraging and strengthening the assets that already exist in this community,” said Williams. 

To learn more about the garden, programs offered and its history, visit https://www.alicesgardenmke.com/.