Taste of Unity: Local Business Unity Gardens Hosts 11th Annual Celebration

Elijah Henry, Reporter

November 17, 2023

Photo Credit – Unity Gardens

The Taste of Unity, a local South Bend event hosted by Unity Gardens and several contributors where guests went to enjoy food, music and community, recently had their 11th annual celebration on Nov. 9, 2023. The Taste of Unity is just one of many events, as certainly more will arise.

The Taste of Unity began as a small lend-a-hand event where people gathered together and brought food in celebration of the harvest season’s end. This small gathering dedicated to celebrating a plethora of food soon grew into the event that it is today; a much larger communal event involving well known restaurants around the area such as Fiddler’s Hearth and the South Bend Chefs and Cooks Association. A multitude of other significant contributors helped with directing and setting up the event, including Coca-Cola, Everwise Credit Union, alongside the director, Sara Stewart. “Leading an event is always a bit stressful as you must prepare well in advance…it’s a celebration of local chefs and local food- honoring our wonderful food community,” said Stewart. “We honor the chefs, we all enjoy the food and each other. Even the staff fully participate in the event, trying all the foods and bidding in auction.”

With a $50 entry fee, all the proceeds are donated to grow more food in Unity Garden’s public gardens all across the South Bend area. Anyone can pick produce from these gardens scattered around South Bend completely free of charge. “All of the proceeds are fully invested in feeding our community,” Stewart said.

The annual Taste of Unity event that brings together the community for many recent years will continue to take place annually. With 11 years of experience behind them, the resulting effect on the surrounding community is highly positive. When asked about the impact that Stewart sees, she said, “people get increasingly excited about a unique event of this nature, and it helps to draw people into the magic of Unity Gardens.”

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Want to know more information about Unity Gardens? visit theunitygardens.org, where you can find contact information, volunteering opportunities, and Unity Gardens classes. You can also view their public calendar which shows all upcoming events.

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About the Contributor

Elijah Henry, Reporter

Elijah Henry, better known as Eli, is a senior at John Adams High School, and is excited to return to writing for The Tower for a second year. He hopes to provide interesting stories and expand the horizons of The Tower. Outside of the newspaper, he’s part of other clubs, such as the John Adams Volunteer Association (JAVA), and is hoping to participate in Quiz Bowl this year. He also recently became a member of the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS). After high school, Eli aspires to attend Purdue University and study cybersecurity to achieve his goal of acquiring his dream job which is a cybersecurity specialist. Eli is a persistent soccer player. He hopes to continue playing for both recreational and competitive teams in the future. He has played for 10 years and counting, both for the Michiana Soccer Association (MSA) and Jr. Irish. Eli has two cats, has a job at Notre Dame, and is hopefully going to get his license soon. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family, creating art, and coding websites and bots. His biggest accomplishment with coding is helping develop an AI for an unreleased project. Eli hopes to provide great content and ideas to expand the horizons of The Tower and offer a good experience for the readers. For The Tower, he’ll do it all: write opinions, interviews, current events, and more. Eli also plans working with other staff members of The Tower to create a more interesting and fun environment for the reader, such as possibly taking part in media, and overall just ending his high school career with some fun.