Lynn Institute Community Garden at Chesapeake
A Partnership with Lynn Institute and Chesapeake
Bringing gardening to the community
The Lynn Institute is excited to announce an initiative that will have an impact on the Oklahoma City community for years to come. In 2023, Chesapeake Energy and the Lynn Institute for Healthcare Research, an Oklahoma City nonprofit, signed a five-year renewable lease giving Lynn Institute oversight and management of the 65-bed garden owned by the oil and gas company, which is located south of N.W. 63rd and Shartel in Oklahoma City.
The Lynn Institute is dedicated to transforming the garden into a hub for community involvement, focusing on family-centered events, health and nutrition initiatives, cooking classes, and gardening workshops. Efforts are underway to restore the garden beds, cultivate crops, and harvest food for the benefit of the city. The space will also host specialized programs designed to enhance the community’s well-being. An existing initiative in collaboration with the Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau involves teenagers from the program engaging in community service hours at the garden, fostering a sense of purpose around giving back to the community.
With the signing of the lease, renovation of the newly named Lynn Institute Community Garden at Chesapeake has already begun under the leadership of Lynn’s Director of Community Gardens, Jordan Davis, a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant and Soil Sciences and extensive experience.
“This is an amazing garden space, an incredible opportunity for the Lynn Institute, and a project that will have a powerful impact on vulnerable communities across our city. We are humbled that Chesapeake would trust us with this project and look forward to working with their team and employees.”
-Lynn Institute CEO, Steve Petty
Volunteer at the Garden
The Lynn Institute is keenly aware it will take many people and organizations to bring about the vision imagined for the garden. “A project of this magnitude needs volunteers who want to lend their talents, but it will also need funding to make the dream a reality,” said Petty. “Chesapeake has been generous with the space, and services like security, water, electricity, and maintenance. We also need individuals, foundations, and other contributors to come alongside us and provide needed funding for what will be a community space that offers beauty, engagement, food, health experiences, educational opportunities, and more.”
The Lynn Institute will host regular workdays throughout the year to prepare beds and maintain the garden. If you are interested in volunteering, please visit our volunteer page.
Learn About the Garden Initiative
Chesapeake Garden History
The Chesapeake Garden, a vision of the organization’s leadership, was created in 2010 as a place of beauty and bounty that offered Chesapeake team members the opportunity to plant, cultivate and harvest crops while enjoying the outdoors. Over the past few years, Chesapeake shifted focus and began to contemplate what would be done with the garden.
In the fall of 2021, Pam Patty, the Lynn Institute’s dietician and master gardener, noticed the garden had changed and did not seem to be in use. Through a course of questions and conversations, Lynn Institute was connected to Kent Hanebaum, Director of Corporate Facilities for Chesapeake and Brooke Coe, Manager of Communications and External Affairs. A meeting with Chesapeake CEO Nick Dell’Osso began a 16-month journey to create a new plan for moving forward to partner with the Lynn Institute and bring the garden back to life.
“One thing we have been impressed with is how the Lynn Institute has managed this process. They developed a plan, put passion behind it, started working with their board, got the right people involved, and then we all moved forward together,” stated Coe.
“The exciting aspect of teaming up with the Lynn Institute is that they have an outward focus toward the community,” explained Hanebaum. “Lynn has a vision for what the garden can be, the volunteer and partner base, and the team infrastructure to make the vision a reality.”