We believe every block deserves a living pantry.
Loam Commons exists to make good food, shared work, and green space ordinary parts of city life — reachable on foot, run by neighbors, and open to anyone willing to get a little soil under their nails.
Three families and a rubble lot
In the spring of 2019, the lot at Prosser and 8th was a fenced-off tangle of broken concrete and blackberry cane. Marisol, Deng, and the Whitfields asked the city for a one-year permit, borrowed a truck of compost, and started digging. By July there were tomatoes.
Word traveled the way it does over fences. A retired teacher brought seedlings. A welder built the first tool shed. The permit became a five-year lease, then a land trust. What began as three plots is now sixty-eight, and the waitlist keeps the stewards busy every winter.
We never wanted a garden that belonged to a few of us. We wanted a commons — something the whole block could hold in common.
— Marisol Vega, founding steward
Four things we won't compost
Open to everyone
No experience, no membership fee, no perfect English required. If you live nearby and want to grow, there's a place for you here.
Food is for sharing
A third of every harvest goes to neighbors who need it. Abundance is only worth growing if it reaches someone's plate.
Work with the land
We compost, save seed, plant for pollinators, and never spray. Healthy soil is the whole project; everything else grows from it.
Run by neighbors
Decisions get made at the potluck table, not in a boardroom. Every member has a vote and every steward is a volunteer.
Seven seasons of growing
- 2019
The lot is cleared
Three families, a one-year permit, and the first three raised beds go in at Prosser and 8th.
- 2021
The pantry partnership
We commit a third of every harvest to the Prosser Street food pantry — 600 pounds in the first year.
- 2023
A permanent home
The lot moves into a neighborhood land trust, protecting the garden from development for good.
- 2026
Sixty-eight beds and counting
A youth program, a tool library, and a seed bank now anchor the block — with a waitlist every spring.
Come see the beds for yourself
The gate is open every day, and the stewards are around most Thursday evenings. Walk the rows, ask questions, pull a weed or two.