Memorial For Victims Will Be Urban Garden

INDIANAPOLIS - Organizers of a Peace Garden on the city’s northeast side hope it will be a source of nourishment – both the physical and the spiritual kind – as the city confronts its most violent year since 2006. 

On Wednesday morning, Rev. Cannon Tanya Vonnegut Beck blessed the new garden that will also serve as a memorial. One hundred forty white crosses now dot the lawn of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on the corner of 46th Street and Emerson Avenue, one for every person murdered so far this year.

But come this summer the crosses may serve as poles for beans and tomatoes after the half acre field is planted.  The urban garden is expected to produce up to five tons of fresh food that will be distributed to local food banks.

IMPD Police Chief Rick Hite says the church’s initiative is directly linked to crime reduction.

"The fact that you’re going out there and feeding people and showing them someone cares reduces the number of homicides and the number of people who go out there and fend for themselves to survive,"  Hite said.

Hite says that focus area data shows that the number of delivery person robberies went down in the areas where people were getting food they needed.

The church hopes the garden will inspire other people and groups to become part of the solution to reduce gun violence.

So far this year, 140 have been murdered in Indianapolis, the highest number in nine years.