Meet our Partner Farmers
Jenn Mabry
Jenn Mabry was living the “go-go-go” corporate life, with its deadlines and high-pressure demands—until, after a year at a new job, working in a cubicle, she couldn’t take it anymore.
It was a risk for a single mom with a daughter, but she started classes in occupational therapy, hoping to do art therapy. When she took a horticulture class at OSUOKC, everything changed. “I didn’t take horticulture,” she says. “Horticulture took me.” As part of her learning, she took an internship at CommonWealth Urban Farm. That was 7 years ago. Since then, she’s been growing food and building community around growing food—primarily, until last fall, at the garden at Chesapeake Oil. TLC Nurseries paid her salary to oversee the Chesapeake garden. There, she and a growing cadre of volunteers grew vegetables for the OKC food pantry and, when the production of veggies increased, for the Homeless Alliance as well.
“It was a full block garden,” she says. “I couldn’t do it myself. I let friends know through Facebook that I needed help.”
As volunteer numbers grew, as production increased, so did the sense of community. Volunteers wanted to learn more, so Jenn developed classes. They put in a Monarch Way Station and learned about pollinators and how insects work together.
“They became proud of what they were doing in the garden,” says Jenn. “They’d bring family and friends and show them the row they were tending.”
Girl Scout troops volunteered. “It’s important for children to learn where food comes from,” says Jenn. “They are apt to try it if they’ve grown it.”
Potlucks in the garden gave Jenn a chance to introduce new foods, like carrot top pesto.
Working in the garden, with a variety of people as well as plants, “means something” to people, says Jenn. Providing food for people experiencing homelessness, including in one OKC public school, has come to mean a great deal to Jenn. “One in four children in public schools in the U.S. are food insecure,” she says. “Their only meal is at school.”
“I wanted to do something to help.” But then Chesapeake closed its campus in Oklahoma City, including the garden. So last fall Jenn became a partner-farmer at CommonWealth.
“CommonWealth saved my life,” she said. “I needed space to continue to grow food for the Homeless Alliance. Fresh food is hard for them to get.”
Now, every Saturday the dedicated volunteers who garden with Jenn come to CommonWealth to continue their work together. “It’s great being here; being in community with like-minded individuals.” She and her team are one of five partner-farmer teams at CommonWealth.
Jenn is establishing a not-for-profit organization to continue her work growing food. She hopes to establish gardens around Oklahoma City and has secured the next garden location—as well as plenty of work for her community of volunteers. “It’s covered in Bermuda grass, so we’ll have to dig it and plant cover crops this coming fall.”
While developing more garden projects and education through her organization, Jenn also hopes to continue to grow food at CommonWealth—for her own well-being. “I want that to be my own garden. I want to grow niche crops for chefs. I love being outside; it’s therapeutic.”
Jenn, growing up in Oklahoma City, was never interested or ever helped in her parents’ garden. Her time is now.
