Pharmacy Garden Celebrates 5th Year of Fighting Childhood Obesity

Kilgore’s Pharmacy works to treat childhood obesity and diabetes through access to nutritious food

The Kilgore’s Community Garden celebrates its fifth year this May. The community garden kicked off garden use on May 27th, 2010, making this its fifth year of production. The once-vacant half acre of land owned by Kilgore’s Pharmacy has transformed into not only a site for growing healthy food, but growing connections in the community as well.

Ever since the inaugural year of the community garden, produce from Kilgore’s Community Garden has benefited the Nora Stewart Early Learning Center, and in more recent years, the Columbia Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, and the Columbia Community Montessori. In the garden’s four years of production, over two tons of nutrient-dense vegetables have been donated.

The community garden is maintained by the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture’s Edible Landscaping Manager, Liberty Hunter, and a crew of volunteers every Wednesday evening. Hunter previously co-owned The Salad Garden, a Certified Organic produce farm in Southern Boone County. She brings with her years of experience in organic farming, as well as her interest in food’s role as medicine, which bridges to the mission of the community garden.

Motivation for creating the garden stemmed from a revelation pharmacist and owner of Kilgore’s, Ann Bromstedt, had while filling a prescription five years ago.

Bromstedt recalls, “I had filled a prescription one day for a five-year-old for cholesterol-lowering medication, and I called the nurse at the doctor’s office to make sure that that was indeed the correct medication for the kiddo. And she said yeah, and it just turned out that this child was morbidly obese and already had elevated cholesterol.” The decision was to take a grassroots approach and create a garden in the vacant lot next door to provide healthy food options for children in the community.

This unique community partnership’s approach to solving the health issues which feed the pharmaceutical industry seems unnatural to the cynic, but to Bromstedt, it was the only answer.“We’ve taken care of this community for years,” Bromstedt said. “We decided to reach out and give back where it made sense. Being in a health partnership with the preschool makes total sense.”

The preschool’s chef, Steve Williams, appreciates incorporating the donations from Kilgore’s Community Garden into breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the children. “I’ve been a chef for 35 years, and right now, I try to keep everything as healthy as I can and as fresh as I can because it’s so hot.”

There are many exciting changes in the works with the community garden this year. Hunter and volunteers have already planted more berries, and are working toward installing an herb spiral.

Hunter hopes that the Kilgore's Community Garden is as much of a food producing site as it is an educational garden. “Everyone from students to adults come out to learn how to grow all kinds of edible plants: fruit, vegetable, and herb. We are establishing as many perennial fruits and herbs as possible this year, and eliminating as much grass as we can to make room for growing more food.”

For the last two years, Douglass High School students have been using part of the garden to complement their science classes.

“My students learned to garden, but more importantly, were given the opportunity to apply biology concepts while growing personally and interpersonally,” said John Reid, Douglass High School Biology Teacher. “They cultivated the soil, nurtured plants, cooperated in manual tasks and shared the bounty of their harvest. This is the type of experience most teachers only dream of giving their students. My hope is for the CCUA to one day be able to provide all Columbia Public School students with this most fundamental experience of growing your own food.”

And thanks to the proximity of Kilgore’s Community Garden, this opportunity is available to students from Nora Stewart, DHS, and neighboring Montessori Schools, all within walking distance.