On a sunny midsummer day in a south Minneapolis backyard, a handful of people were harvesting garlic for a meal to be served at a nearby American Indian church. 

A few steps away, eggplant and exotic squash were ripening on the vine, almost ready for the kitchen of a neighborhood Bangladeshi/Indian restaurant.

The people picking the vegetables, weeding and tending the crops weren’t members of the church or restaurant employees. They were young volunteers rounded up from a variety of local faith communities.

Whose garden is this, anyway?

A lot of diverse people and organizations have a stake in the Gandhi Mahal Interfaith Garden, an experimental plot in the Corcoran neighborhood.

Growing food is just one of the ambitious garden’s lofty missions, according to its coordinator, Claire Baglien. It’s also a place where people committed to food justice, faith and climate change can work together on common goals, she said.