YMCA’s food forest ready for picking

Still a question as to how that will be handled

Wednesday night was the final opportunity to participate in the food forest, which, oddly enough, broke ground at the La Crosse YMCA during a snowstorm in March. 

The garden produced a lot of produce, as well as a lot of people helping out.

“There was a huge diversity of people that’s been showing up – old younger, white, black, we’ve had a couple police officers showing up every night,” said Jared Barkheim from Coulee Region Ecoscapes, who helped create the garden. “It’s just another aspect of the community that’s been built with this food forest.”

Barkheim says they aren’t sure what the process will be for picking food once they are harvested, but says donations to the food pantry is one option.

“It’s certainly an option that anyone can come and take food but there’s also the healthy-living center that’s a new edition to the building here,” he said. “There’s always an option of donating to a food bank if we have too much to harvest.”

Grants from the YMCA helped them make the food forest idea a reality, Grant said.