About Us
Soo Line Community Garden is a park that started as an inspiration from neighbors who saw an empty, tax-forfeited lot filled with litter as the future location for a community garden. In 1991, the neighbors established the Soo Line Community Garden in Whittier, in the heart of Minneapolis.
Gardeners and neighbors built a beautiful front garden, maintained flowers and native pollinators in the boulevards, added plants to the Moen memorial, and built a children’s garden, in addition to a plot tended by kids from the nearby Whittier Elementary School.
This park has grown from a small group of volunteers to over 200 people from all over the world who volunteer to maintain the space and can donate a small fee to have a 10x10 plot. In 2010, Soo Line became an official neighborhood park and community garden in the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board.
The garden has benches, a picnic table, and areas for the public to read, eat, meditate, and meet friends. It is a space dedicated to the community.
Soo Line also serves as a place of recreation, education, and youth programming for the Whittier neighborhood and the Whittier Elementary School. In 2024, the garden expanded to additional sites at Whittier Park and Pillsbury Avenue.
Board Members
Jessica Kochick, President
Jessica is a special education teacher working for Minneapolis Public Schools. She got involved with Soo Line Garden as a volunteer and eventually got a plot to grow tomatillos, chili peppers, and peas. She has a background in anthrozoology and worked as a policy organizer for a land stewardship nonprofit. Jessica puts her interests and experience to use at Soo Line by supporting youth, community education, and advocacy in the garden.
Regina Brenner
After moving from Germany in 1994 to help the Waldorf Schools in the area, it was important for me to join the Soo Line Garden right away. Back in Germany, I had been involved with several organic farms and the supporting communities we built around them. Being out in nature with my students was always essential. The Soo Line Garden became a peaceful oasis, a healthy place to connect with a wide range of different people. Since joining the board, I have been striving to help weave the community together and provide some stability in all the ups and downs.
Pam Colby, Treasurer
Pam is passionate about the Soo Line Community garden because it is a safe space that nourishes and enriches her spiritually. Pam has a long history of non-profit work primarily focused on equity and access to media and served for 15 years as the Executive Director of the Minneapolis Television Network. She is a teaching artist and filmmaker and a long-time member of the Queer Community. Pam lives in the Central Neighborhood of Minneapolis and loves to ride her bike on the Midtown Greenway to the garden.
Claudia Callaghan
I have been gardening at Soo Line Community Garden for eight years. During those first years, I also was gardening with my people from the disabled community as we had our own plot in the garden. We walked to Soo Line Community Garden every day, in every season, enjoying everything about being in a changing garden. I also have been gardening almost all my life. One of my first memories is planting my own tomato plant in our backyard with my mom.
I now have three wonderful children and one granddaughter.
Besides gardening and working in a bookstore, I write songs and am currently working on a book of poetry. I also am an avid, daily walker, home cook and am always creating and trying new vegetarian recipes to share with my family and friends.