Featured Programs and Interests

Through our Community Food Connection Program, LEC directly connects people to the land and to healthy, organic produce. We are able to confront the issues of food insecurity and sovereignty in our community collaboratively through a multi-faceted approach. From youth educational programming to navigating ways for emerging growers to enter the local food economy, LEC works with our Community Partners to create pathways to food and land access and agency over food choices.

Community Garden

Located on the former farm site of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Living Earth Gardens provide a beautiful organic space where neighbors and family can gather, grow food, and nurture a self-sufficient empowered community.
Individual gardeners, as well as community partners (MY Place, MRCI, and MNSU College of Allied Health and Nursing's Eng-AGE-ment Garden) tend their plots together. Our garden is as diverse as Mankato itself. Ten different languages are spoken by the 120+ gardeners.
Community Farm

Since 2021, LEC has worked in partnership with Blue Earth County to manage the Blue Earth County Community Farm. The Farm is home to our Food Donation Program. All food grown through this program is donated back to into the community. Under the guidance of our Farm Manager, both individuals and groups volunteer their time to tend to these plots.

Since 2022, the Farm has also been home to our Emerging Growers Program, which addresses food sovereignty in the Mankato area by partnering with community members who have expressed concern that they are unable to access culturally significant foods and/or want to grow larger amounts of produce but do not have access to land.
Events, Workshops and Programs

Living Earth Center provides opportunities where minds can be opened, ideas can be shared, and growth can take place through workshops, events, and conferences offered throughout the year. Honoring all spiritual traditions and paths, Living Earth Center also holds gatherings to honor seasonal transitions with ritual and reflection. Find out more by clicking here.
Get Involved

Living Earth Center believes that each person makes a valuable contribution to the world and systemic change can be traced all the way down to the individual level. Whether you are interested in donating, volunteering, gardening, learning or making a meaningful shift, you are helping to create a ripple effect within the local and greater Earth community.
Read more about how to get involved by clicking here.

Sharing Common Ground

Like a healthy ecosystem, we believe that everyone has something important and valuable to offer to our local and greater Earth community. We believe in bringing people with different backgrounds and strengths together to share common ground over food, learning and storytelling. We invite you to join us in celebrating nature's abundance and honoring our shared resilience and responsibility in the interconnection of everything.

Get Connected

Historic Big Red Barn

News and Updates

August 21, 2026

Everyone CAN Can!

byLiving Earth Center

At LEC we strive to give the people what they want - and right now, THE PEOPLE WANT TO CAN!!

We have a Canning 101 scheduled for Aug 29th which has reached capacity. We started a waiting list, and went to work to find another date that would work for a second session. By the time that date was set in November the waiting list was overflowing with enough people to fill the second class and then some!

So SkyAnne has worked to schedule not only a 3rd session (in January) but also a 4th session (in March)!!

Check our Event Calendar for the full listing of Canning 101 opportunities. (Scholarships are available for all LEC workshops.)

And a huge thank you to both Sky (who's teaching the workshops) and Centenary UMC (who is graciously letting us use their kitchen space to run the workshops) for being so flexible and willing to make sure that anyone and everyone who wants to learn to can, CAN!

August 20, 2026

Seed to Sauce: Time for Pizza in the Gardens!

byLiving Earth Center

As the school year draws ever nearer, the weekly summer MY Place garden classes come to a close - and that means one thing: PIZZA!!

It's become an annual tradition to make pizzas from the veggies they grew all summer long, and it's always a highlight of the summer season.

This year, Education & Program Manager Maisie added some extra VegPowerTM to the sauce much to the surprise of the students eating it. "I had made the pizza sauce with tomatoes, basil, parsley, sage, and onion from the children's garden, " said Maisie, "and added a bunch of extra veggies that were donated by Cedar Crate Farm as well..."