Lynn Institute is bringing new life to garden area at Chesapeake Energy

Leaders of a local nonprofit want to see community members of all ages nurturing rows of fruits and vegetables on the grounds of an Oklahoma-based oil and gas company.

Through a renewable five-year lease agreement with Chesapeake Energy Corp., the Lynn Institute for Healthcare Research is working to see this vision realized at the new Lynn Institute Community Garden at Chesapeake. Lynn Institute leaders are bringing the 65-bed garden located on 2 1/2 acres at Chesapeake back to life, hoping to transform it into a community hub of sorts.

Steve Petty, Lynn Institute president and chief executive officer, said the nonprofit has hired Jordan Davis as director of community gardens. He will work with Pam Patty, the nonprofit's master gardener and community dietitian to draw members of the community to the garden for health and nutrition initiatives, cooking classes, gardening workshops and other family centered activities.

Patty said the ultimate goal is to restore the garden beds, cultivate crops and harvest food for the benefit of Oklahoma City residents. She said a gardening class for juvenile offenders from the Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center is already underway, with positive results.

"I think the kids get really excited when they come back and see this, then they have a real connection to it," Patty said, pointing to spaghetti squash sprouting from one plant bed.

'This is nature's Door Dash'

Petty said the community garden will help the nonprofit expand its efforts to promote healthy lifestyles and offer nutrition education, while making nutritious food accessible to the community. Through its Healthy Community Collaborative-NE OKC, the nonprofit has focused its attention and resources on nutrition education and food accessibility in northeast Oklahoma City, known for many years as a food desert. He said he's hoping the community garden hub will be a place where people from northeast Oklahoma City, as well as other areas of the city, including the south side, will come for gardening and programs.

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Along those lines, Patty said she liked the idea of teaching residents how to grow nutritious food to eat instead of reaching for fast food.

"This is nature's Door Dash," she said.

Originally known as Chesapeake Garden, the large cluster of plant beds was created in 2010 as a serene outdoor setting for Chesapeake team members to plant and harvest crops just steps away from their work environment. Patty said she and other master gardeners knew the garden had not been fully utilized for a time so she helped connect Petty with Chesapeake leaders who were on the lookout for a way to see the garden bloom again.

Patty's efforts proved fruitful.

Lynn Institute leaders first met with Kent Hanebaum, Chesapeake's director of corporate facilities, and Brooke Coe, the oil and gas company's manager of communications and external affairs. Then, a meeting with Chesapeake Chief Executive Officer Nick Dell’Osso served as the beginning of more than a year of developing a way to move forward with garden revitalization plans.

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Coe said Chesapeake leaders were impressed with how the Lynn Institute managed the development process. She said they developed a plan with passion and started working with their board so that Chesapeake and the nonprofit could move forward on the project together.

Meanwhile, Davis graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in plant and soil sciences. He said he's currently putting his educational background and hands-on experience in the food industry to good use with plans to revitalize the garden by clearing plant beds and replanting vegetables, berries and flower gardens. He also hopes to re-create a central arbor on the property and add a water feature and fireplace or firepit.

"There's really an opportunity to build up something and bring together people," Davis said. "We can even reach different people from different demographics and kind of be a unifying force for a food system that brings healthy, nutritious food to the whole city."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC nonprofit building 'nature's Door Dash' with community garden