Today we’d like to introduce you to Cecilia Hogan.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I didn’t grow up around gardens, in fact I never saw a single garden or farm growing produce in my youth.
That changed in college when I noticed my neighbor had transformed the empty easement between our apartment buildings into a lush garden full of heirloom tomatoes, kale, and herbs. I was fascinated. I asked her a million gardening questions and what she taught me open new doors for me. That small garden sparked a lifelong love of growing food and I’m forever grateful for that garden fairy neighbor.
After college, while working as a social worker with youth, I took the Citizen Gardener Series through the Sustainable Food Center to deepen my beginner level gardening knowledge and then later helped start a small community garden for young parents and former foster youth at LifeWorks. To complete my volunteer hours for the Citizen Gardener Series, I attended a “permablitz,” where volunteers built berms and swales using permaculture design and planted trees and companion plants. I was impressed by what was accomplished that weekend and inspired by watching permaculture principles in action.
Years later, after my second child was born and the pandemic suddenly scattered the in-person community that had supported me as a new parent, a new connection formed just two doors down. My neighbor Ivana Coleman and I began chatting in our front yards while sharing produce from our gardens. We both longed to rebuild community and deepen our relationship with the land all while learning to grow more food.
While taking a Permaculture Design Certificate course, we visited Festival Beach Food Forest during a chilly December morning workday. After seeing volunteers joyfully tending a public space where food and medicine grow freely for the community, we felt inspired! Soon after, Ivana texted me with an idea: “What if we started a garden at Grand Meadow Park? That was the undeveloped neighborhood park down the street from us where neighbors had tried to get amenities like a playground and a trail since 2001. It is a 10-acre meadow that, while serene and offers much-needed biodiversity in a suburb, offered no spaces for community.
What followed was years of community organizing. We began by hosting a park cleanup, filling bags with trash that had accumulated in the neglected space. We talked with neighbors, knocked on doors, tabled at local events, and gathered feedback about what people wanted the park to become. We sought guidance from Jodi Lane, one of the founders of Festival Beach Food Forest and later Fruitful Commons, an Austin nonprofit that supports grassroots leaders who grow food, strengthen communities, and steward the natural commons. We founded Friends of Grand Meadow, adopted the park through Austin Parks Foundation, and began the long process of working with the City towards a community garden permit.
Slowly, a shared vision emerged: a food forest and community garden where neighbors could grow food together while cultivating a welcoming public space that offers shade, food, and medicine to all who visit. Today that vision is becoming reality! Austin Parks Foundation is building the park’s first amenities, and this fall Friends of Grand Meadow will break ground on a new food forest and community garden designed to grow culturally relevant foods, celebrate native plants, and create space for learning and connection.
Looking back, the throughline to the project’s success is clear: every step of this journey began with someone sharing knowledge and inviting others to care for the land together. From a small guerilla garden in college to the volunteers at Festival Beach Food Forest to neighbors swapping produce and later organizing around Grand Meadow Park, each connection planted a seed that continues to grow.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road to getting our community garden and food forest approved has had plenty of challenges. We knew it would take years to get the project approved and kick started. Engaging a community around a park with no amenities and no shade was difficult. In 2022 we were awarded a grant through Austin Public Health and built the park’s first waypoint with seating: a mulch pad with seating. We partnered with arborists at Sweetwater 512 Landscaping to build beautiful logs for play, meetings, or a place to rest. In that space (with a canopy we bring out) we’ve hosted many meetings and events! And it has been a joy to watch passers by or folks waiting for a bus resting in the area.
Other challenges have been the amount of work to get the word out the project, host events, and design this project. We are all volunteers on this project doing this on our own time. But we have been fueled by ensuring this was an equitable process so when we asked our District 2 representative Councilmember Fuentes the best way to reach people, she said “meet them where they are at. Start knocking on doors.” So that’s what we did. I often had one or both of my kids with me while knocking on hundreds of doors to spread surveys or invite neighbors to events. All while teaching my kids the ins and outs of community organizing including social skills to gauge the best way to approach the conversation with folks. Thank goodness they are extroverts like me and enjoyed it! Passing along a love for civic duty to my kids has been an unexpected bonus of doing this work!
It has all been time consuming, but we keep this project sustainable by building relationships with neighbors and regularly bringing in new volunteers to help lead our project so we can cycle in and out as needed.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Along the way I began working for Fruitful Commons, deepening my knowledge of community organizing. Joining a team whose goal it is to strengthen the fabric of Austin through community-led agricultural projects has been a joy-filled career shift!
I currently serve as the Operations Manager at Fruitful Commons and the Outreach Steward with Friends of Grand Meadow. For both organizations I support grant writing, outreach communications, event planning, and supporting grassroots leaders with their projects. At Fruitful Commons we host biannual Gathering of Growers workshops and networking opportunities. We also have an annual Tree Care Mini Grant program to support projects in growing or caring for urban tree canopies in Austin.
To learn more about the Grand Meadow Community Garden and Food Forest, go to grandmeadow.org or email us at grandmeadowparkproject@gmail.com
For questions regarding Fruitful Commons or how to start or support your community-led agricultural project, visit fruitfulcommons.org or email us at connect@fruitfulcommons.org
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I’m always looking to see what I can help cross-pollinate to boost amazing work being done to build community in Austin!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/grandmeadow
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grandmeadowgarden/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrandMeadow
