Located at the corner of Dekist and Overhill drives on the east side of Bloomington, the Green Acres Neighborhood Garden was founded in 2009 and consists of three homes next to one another to form an eco-village.
Everyone living in these pods works together to live lightly on the land, Kreilkamp said. At the age of 72, she has turned her neighborhood home into a fully functioning eco-village, equipped with solar panels, food storage and preservation, compost and a chicken coop.
“We’d like to see the entire neighborhood doing this,” Kreillkamp said. “Because it’s a student rental (neighborhood), we have all this flow of people coming through ... We have to come back into community, period.”
Others are joining Kreilkamp’s cause for community. Rebecca Ellsworth, member of the Garden, moved in to the eco-village two years ago. She said she is busy this spring preparing the garden. Her pod of the eco-village provides the Neighborhood Kitchen, which offers community dinners at 6:30 p.m. every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ellsworth said she encourages everyone to become a part of the Green Acres community, even if they aren’t in the Green Acres neighborhood. Ellsworth said anyone is welcome to cook and eat and may leave a donation if they want.
“I think the unique thing about our group here is that we’re cross-generational ... that’s what we want, because something like this really happens best when that happens,” Ellsworth said.
“We all need each other ... I had an organic farm for 22 years, so I have this knowledge to give away to people who want it, and there’s a lot of people who are interested in it, but they just don’t know where to start.”
With Green Acres Garden being a nonprofit organization with the Green Acres Neighborhood Association, donations and money collected from the Uncanny Project are used to help maintain the garden Kreilkamp said.
The Uncanny Project is just one of the tasks on hand for Katarina Koch, Green Acres Community Development Director. She started the Uncanny Project to pick up beer cans left in the streets after house parties. She said living in a sustainable environment with Green Acres has benefited her.
“The amount that I’ve changed and the amount of work that I do for the community now ... it’s amazing,” Koch said. “Living intergenerational has facilitated this blossoming in me.”
