Paula Penn-Nabrit is a 4th generation, African American woman, and a small-scale regenerative farmer in Columbus, Ohio. She is the founder of the Charles Madison Neighborhood Memorial Garden. The garden initially served as free grief therapy after she lost her husband in 2013. The garden sits on a 5,000-square-foot biodiverse organic space at the rear of a church founded an estimated 110 years ago by descendants of formerly enslaved Africans.
Paula’s farming experience dates back 43 years ago when she and her late husband started home gardening to provide food for their family. At the beginning, Paula realized that their commitment to growing their own food triggered unaddressed forms of post-traumatic stress syndrome among community members of African descent. Paula is satisfied with the diversity of the communities served, engagement within the garden, and the increasing biodiversity of her soil due to her regenerative practices such as mulching, composting, and drip irrigation system. Paula contends that humans first resided in a garden, and she wishes that black churches and the broader community would be more understanding and supportive of farming.
Paula Penn-Nabrit (Photo courtesy: Paula Nabrit)
