When Donna Jack’s husband died two years ago, she turned to the Gary Food Council and its Broadway garden for support.

Now, Jack is one of the council’s members concerned that the city will make them leave the garden.

“I found the best way to deal with his death is to grow life, and so the garden has been very instrumental in helping me deal with his death,” Jack said. “I can’t imagine how hard it would’ve been without the garden.”

Corey Hagelberg, a volunteer with the Midtown Community Garden, started a petition on June 29, asking for support as the city attempts to evict the council and its partners from the community garden.

As of about 3 p.m. Wednesday, Hagelberg’s petition has received more than 360 signatures. Hagelberg has only heard positive comments about the garden from community members, he said, and that’s continued since creating the petition.

“It feels really good,” said Hagelberg, who also started the garden in 2019. “It seems support is coming in quickly.”

Brother’s Keeper shelter owns the garden at 22nd Avenue and Broadway, but the Gary Food Council has leased it since 2023. The council has received more than $50,000 in grant funding from Faith in Place and the Legacy Foundation to improve the garden’s land, support youth internships and expand programming, according to a news release.

Hagelberg said he’s never heard from the city directly that the Gary Food Council might be evicted from the garden.

Multiple members of the Gary Food Council said city officials have said they need to vacate the land to make way for future development, but no formal communication has been made.“I heard the city wants all commercial profiting under their control, and that the garden sits on commercial property,” Jack said. “We tried to explain that the garden has been here for a while. … We help people of all ages in the community.”

Jack feels betrayed by the city and Mayor Eddie Melton’s administration, she said.

If city leadership wants to improve Broadway, multiple Gary Food Council members said they’re willing to work with the city. Hagelberg said they support beautification efforts, including new murals in Midtown celebrating musicians from Gary.

“These efforts are completely in line with what we’re interested in at the garden,” Hagelberg said.

In a Wednesday statement, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the city is not the owner of the parcel and has not sent any correspondence regarding relocation. The city maintains an ongoing collaboration with Brother’s Keeper shelter and informed them of commercial zoning guidelines.

Melton said the shelter has made a decision regarding the property’s future.

“The city of Gary, recognizing the importance of this garden to our community, has worked with Brother’s Keeper and Pastor Michael Dotson to support the garden in its current location through the end of this year’s growing season,” Melton’s statement said. “We are actively collaborating to identify a more suitable location and are committed to supporting a smooth relocation that preserves what makes this garden special.”

Brother’s Keeper did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

“We’re not against Brother’s Keeper, I want that to be clear,” Hagelberg said. “This all seems to be an attempt to move Brother’s Keeper off Broadway.”

The city has given alternate garden sites, including at 21st Avenue and Adams Street. But, because the council has spent years gardening at the site, it would be detrimental to move and start over.

“It’s been years of adding soil and adding mulch to really build up the fertility of the lot and make sure everything’s planted and there’s raised beds,” Hagelberg said. “The lots that they’ve offered are quite a bit smaller, and they don’t have the water we need.”

If the Gary Food Council has to leave the garden, Hagelberg doesn’t know how it will impact grant funding. He also doesn’t know for sure when the city expects them to vacate the area.

Maya Etienne, programming volunteer with the Gary Food Council, said the group was told in about March or April that Brother’s Keeper planned to move, but that didn’t mean the garden had to also leave.

The Post-Tribune was unable to confirm if Brother’s Keeper is moving and where.

Gary Food Council is accustomed to moving, Etienne said, adding that they previously ran a garden that had to move when the land was sold.

The city previously asked the Gary Food Council to vacate the garden before the growing season started, Etienne said.

“And we were like, ‘No, we’ve got students here. We have a whole program. We’ve got perennials — we’ve got all these things here,’” Etienne said. “They kind of just gave us pressure that it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing, and it wasn’t part of the design plan for Broadway. Those were all the things we were hearing, but none of it was written.”

Etienne worries about redevelopment in Gary if the food council is expected to vacate the garden, and she’s worried how the administration’s plans might affect organizations that provide resources to lower-income residents.

Etienne said she spends time at the garden with her teenage daughter and mother, Alma Wilkes, who is also the treasurer for the council.

“Someone once asked, ‘Why are you guys so emotional?’” Etienne said. “You don’t get it until you’ve put your hands in that ground. We’re connected to this place.”

Wilkes is frustrated with the situation, she said. The food council likes the Midtown location, Wilkes said, because it’s centrally located and provides services to all neighborhoods.

“We want to be something that’s for Gary, Indiana, as opposed to lining up with a certain neighborhood or church,” she said. “We’re fighting to keep the food council for the city of Gary.”

Wilkes feels that city leadership doesn’t understand the significance of the urban garden, she said, and she’s worried that they will be forgotten as economic development thrives in Gary.

“The garden is alive,” Wilkes said. “I feel like that if it’s gone, a lot of people will feel like it was an unfortunate thing to have happened.”

The community garden was created following the COVID-19 pandemic, Etienne said, which is why the food council received a grant to help create the space. Etienne believes the garden helped people feel connected to each other after the pandemic.

Petition signatures might not have a direct impact, Etienne said, but she thinks it will indirectly help and show the city how much people care.

“It’s not just about us,” she said. “We represent all the other small organizations in this community. … We may not look the same, but the potential for what’s happening here could happen anywhere.”

Although food council members are worried about the community garden’s future in Midtown, Etienne believes they still can work with city leadership to create a solution. The food council plans to work with a design firm to show city leadership how they can improve the garden and how it will benefit Gary, Etienne said.

“We are open to communicating and having a better and more open process with the city and community stakeholders,” she added. “I’m hoping they’re open to listening because we’re trying to take the appropriate steps to match what they have said the problem was, which is aesthetics.”

mwilkins@chicagotribune.com