Mrs. Niño's Garden

10/09/2024

"She sounds almost apocryphal: Concepcion Niño. A woman whose last name means “child” co-founded a childcare center in South Bend, Indiana, to care for the children of farm workers. As a migrant worker, she had seen small children brought to the agricultural fields in Texas by parents who lacked childcare, and in South Bend she wanted to ensure that didn’t happen. So in 1970 she and her husband, Ignacio, along with some friends, started a childcare center in her home and named it “little field”—El Campito.

Fifty years later, field and little field reunited when El Campito Child Development Center partnered with the Near Westside Neighborhood Organization to turn a vacant lot at the corner of Thomas and Laurel streets into an educational and communal garden. The center’s teachers and staff asked that the garden be named after their founder. It would be a place where people and plants can grow together." - Andrea Crawford

Read more about Mrs. Niño's Garden in the latest issue of Edible Michiana or by clicking here:
https://ediblemichiana.ediblecommunities.com/food-thought/what-s-old-new

05/18/2024

The native perennials are coming up and a fresh layer of compost is going down. It's high spring and the beginning of our fifth growing season. All are invited to help plant seeds — or just come check out the zizia aurea and baptisia australis while they're in bloom.

Neighbors are in the garden every Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon.

06/19/2023

Our high school students from the Migrant Education Program have arrived to help run garden camp for the grade schoolers at El Campito. Their favorite activity so far is — wait for it (no, like, really, wait for it) — slug racing.

06/08/2023

Why we garden!

Gardening is a rewarding family and early learning program activity benefiting adults and preschoolers physically, emotionally, and academically.

https://amshq.org/Blog/2022-07-25-The-Benefits-of-Gardening-with-Preschoolers

04/15/2023

Today, we planted collards with Juneteenth in mind! We’re doing a special project this summer with our Migrant Education Program teen group through Bilingual Services Department.

And we got our irrigation lines opened today. Water is life! 💦💦

04/15/2023

The majority of our plants will move outside within the next month! We would love for you to join us in the garden on Saturday mornings starting May 20 from 9a to 11a. If you are interested in getting your hands dirty or if you know a high schooler that needs volunteer hours completed, please email [email protected] to sign up.

Please support our fundraising initiative for the summer programs in the garden by helping us reach our goal of $5,000:

Mrs. Niño’s Garden is named after Concepcion Niño, El Campito’s founder, and we do our best to live up to her standards of caring for children and the community through it.

04/14/2023

We've got some plants to get in the field. Join us this Saturday morning — and every Saturday morning — 9 a.m. to noon.

04/07/2023

Today, we want to share about Mrs Niño. The history of El Campito Child Development Center started when Mrs. Niño saw the need to help keep children safe in farm fields. She supported working migrant families by caring for their children in her home as they worked. That same mission because the work of El Campito!

Now, 53 years laters, we honor Mrs. Niño at the garden where we strive to help children and plants grow together.

Give to the Garden:

Mrs. Niño’s Garden is named after Concepcion Niño, El Campito’s founder, and we do our best to live up to her standards of caring for children and the community through it.

04/06/2023

Spring break has sprung here! And it was one for the ages. This week our partners at the Migrant Education Program debuted their STEM mobile lab in front of El Campito! The teens got a peak inside the gleaming new lab before getting their hands dirty with biology of the soil — and then helped the school age kids start some seeds too.

04/03/2023

Spring Break is here! That means prepping, dreaming and planting at El Campito Child Development Center. That is right! Our school age students and our Migrant Education Program students are engaged in the work TODAY for food that we will harvest and eat in OCTOBER.

You can support this cause at https://bit.ly/3KacRx3

04/01/2023

This is our 2nd year partnering with the Migrant Education Program through Bilingual Services Department. Teens spent hours last summer next to our School Age students and on their own in the garden. They taught, pruned tomatoes and took on new tasks sometimes in the heat of July! We are so grateful to have this program back for their second summer!

To help fund this endeavor and subsidize the costs, please donate below!

Mrs. Niño’s Garden is named after Concepcion Niño, El Campito’s founder, and we do our best to live up to her standards of caring for children and the community through it.

03/30/2023

One of our first and most vital partnerships at the garden is the Near West Side Neighborhood Organization. Neighbors and friends are the #1 Volunteer Source for growing. Our garden is also open to our neighbors to come and harvest for their families.

03/28/2023

Some of the youngest gardeners at El Campito Child Development Center are hard at work! 🌱

03/27/2023

For those that have followed our growth, this is our 4th Garden Season! We started the garden as a response to the food insecure neighbors around El Campito Child Development Center. This spring as we prepare for a productive summer at the corner of Laurel and Thomas, we invite to participate!
1. Come out and get your hands dirty!
2. Share about our work with others.
3. Donate to our lofty goal of raising $5,000 this year.

03/21/2023

You are invited to spend a few hours on Saturday with us! We will be cleaning up the garden and around El Campito Child Development Center.

03/20/2023

Look what’s popping up! We can’t wait for garden to be filled with plants and students very soon.

Happy first day of spring!! Our seed starts are sprouting already. Come grow with us!

http://eepurl.com/ibzXYn

03/17/2023

Happy St. Patrick's day from El Campito, where we celebrated by starting our first seeds of the new growing season.

10/27/2022

Our friends are doing it again: the Botany Shop is donating a percentage of its sales this week to our garden! So please go check out the amazing shop on Portage, buy beautiful things, and know you’re supporting us and some other great South Bend organizations.