DENVER — A growing community garden is piquing the curiosity of people passing by the Denver Police Department District 4 substation.
On the corner of W. Warren Avenue and S. Clay Street, you can find volunteers harvesting vegetables and planting flowers on a piece of the substation's land that once sat vacant.
"This space has always been just a weed field. It's never been utilized for anything. It just was really an eyesore," said DPD Commander Brad Qualley.
That all changed in 2023, when Jeanine Kopaska Broek, the co-director of The Table Urban Farm, approached Commander Qualley with an idea: to turn the space into a community garden where volunteers can learn to grow and harvest food together.
The nonprofit has been developing more than a dozen gardens in south Denver neighborhoods since 2012, and 100% of the food grown is donated back to communities.
"All of the land and water that we've ever grown on has been gifted to us," said Kopaska Broek. "We want people to join us in this garden as a learning environment. We grow together, we share the harvest. So anybody who comes to hang out with us in the garden goes home with some food."
She said the nonprofit shares the garden's harvest with local food banks at Community Ministry and West High School, and the food is also used to stock the free veggie cooler at The Table Public House, an extension of the nonprofit that serves food, coffee, and craft cocktails nearby.
Kopaska Broek said the nonprofit also recently received a $1,000 donation to put a veggie cooler in the lobby of the DPD District 4 substation.
"That is a very active lobby, and I get to witness a lot of life happening in the parking lot and in that space. And so it'll have a glass door so people can see, and all of a sudden, we hope there will be some connection to this very unexpected, interesting thing that's happening right here at District Four," she said.
Due to its success, the garden continues to thrive. Kopaska Broek said volunteers helped expand the garden another 3,000 square feet this summer.
Commander Qualley said the garden has been a great talking point for his officers to connect with community members.
"You have no idea how much it's become just as far as a garden, but also for gathering or just a place just to hang out," he said. "One of the things I didn't think would happen is a great talking point. People ask us about it all the time. 'What do we got going on here?'"
