Lauren Caruso, Assistant Director of Rochester Center for Community Leadership, lives in the 19th Ward, where she grows an edible and medicinal garden and raises a small flock of backyard ducks with her family. Working with Taproot Collective, she practices activism and social change by volunteering with community organizations that are addressing pressing issues faced by the city of Rochester.
In Lauren’s own words, “all of life’s lessons can be learned in a garden. I’ve had the privilege of growing up in a family that had access to knowledge, resources, and histories related to gardening and food. Since moving back to my hometown of Rochester about 5 years ago, I’ve become part of a growing urban agriculture community. I live in the 19th Ward neighborhood where I grow a edible and medicinal garden and raise a small flock of backyard ducks with my family. I practice activism and social change through volunteering with community organizations that are addressing pressing issues Rochester faces through intentional community-led development, youth engagement and ecological design. I primarily do this with Taproot Collective, a nonprofit urban agriculture organization that uses holistic approaches with youth and families to address inequalities in education and food systems. To me, there is no responsibility greater than fiercely protecting our natural world for generations. Rowen White, a Mohawk woman and world-renowned indigenous seed saver, has said that “we are borrowing the seeds of today from our children tomorrow.” Imagine that–a world where we are considering the health of seven generations from now (effectively 400 years) and treating everything we have today as a gift from our children. I garden with my community rooted in this philosophy and work to mimic systems of nature to heal and regenerate ourselves, each other, and the environment. This is an inherently radical position to take in a dominant system whose sole motivation is based on profits, misogyny, and racism. Gardening in urban spaces and in community is resistance. Dandelions are resistance. Maple seedlings resistance. This is their land, after all. We have colonized it. How can we decolonize our minds, our community, our planet? These are things I think about when I garden.”