SHREVEPORT, La. — For over three decades, a small but persistent green space in Shreveport’s Mooretown neighborhood has been doing more than producing vegetables: it has served as a meeting place, a classroom and a refuge for residents of all ages.
Roots in the neighborhood
Ruby Small, who has lived in Mooretown since 1963, has tended the community garden for more than 30 years. The garden is open around the clock and offers residents a range of informal services that extend beyond plant beds.
Visitors can take food when it is available, use a walking trail that loops through the grounds, browse a small library on site, and bring children to a safe space where they can learn about gardening and nature. For families with special-needs members, the garden can provide a calm environment; Small cited her own grandson, who has severe autism, as an example of a child who benefits from being able to stroll the grounds.
“We have a lot of youth in Mooretown that benefit from knowing that parents and neighbors and everybody’s caring about them,”
Small said residents regularly come to the garden with children and that the site has become a place where neighbors check on each other. She added that the garden’s value lies not only in fresh food but in the social connections it fosters and the chance for young people to be seen for positive activities.
Partnerships and improvements
Local organizations have helped sustain and expand the garden. Among those mentioned is Shreveport Green, which Small said has provided assistance in recent months. With that support and help from other partners, the garden is getting an irrigation system and ongoing improvements to its infrastructure.
Those upgrades aim to make the site more resilient and usable year-round. Small said the neighborhood garden is “growing” in both the literal and figurative sense, and she expressed pride in recent progress.
- Open access: Garden is available around the clock to residents.
- Programs: Walking trail, small library, youth access and informal education.
- Support: Local groups such as Shreveport Green have aided expansion and irrigation efforts.
Why it matters to Mooretown and Shreveport
Small framed the garden as a corrective to narrow narratives about Mooretown. She emphasized that the neighborhood is home to young people focused on education and community — not just the problems that often receive media attention.
“They’re not riding or looking for trouble; those are young men that’s growing and getting their education, minding their parents, doing what they suppose to do. My thing is they need to be seen more than tragedy,” Small said.
The garden’s combination of services and accessibility has practical benefits: residents can obtain food in a neighborhood setting, children can safely play and learn outdoors, and seniors or caregivers can find a nearby place for respite. The improvements under way — notably the irrigation system — should help stabilize harvests and lower the labor required to keep beds productive.
| Feature | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Food beds | Provide fresh produce to residents |
| Walking trail | Recreation and low-impact exercise |
| Small library | Reading and informal education for children and adults |
| Irrigation (in progress) | Improve water access and crop reliability |
Small said she plans to continue planting and expanding the garden’s role as a neighborhood hub. Her aim is for Mooretown to be recognized for its people and their positive efforts, not just for the challenges the community faces.
As the garden grows with new infrastructure and continued volunteer involvement, it stands as a local example of how small, resident-led projects can bolster neighborhood resilience and create spaces where people — from toddlers to elders — can gather, learn and be supported.
Local residents seeking to learn more or to help are encouraged to connect with community groups involved with urban agriculture and neighborhood improvement; Small and partners like Shreveport Green remain central to ongoing work at the Mooretown garden.
