Despite existing for five years, Mine Fire Gardens has “​​never been so desperate for cash,” according to a September 2 post on Louis-Georges Schwartz’s personal Facebook page. In other words, the stakes are higher than ever –– Mine Fire must find the funds to operate or risk ceasing to exist.

Louis-Georges Schwartz started Mine Fire Gardens in 2016 after attempting to start a commune with others, who later left. He remained in Athens County on a plot of roughly 32 acres just north of the city, working the land primarily on his own with the help of volunteers from the community. Schwartz initially funded the project with his own salary as a professor at Ohio University –– his salary was approximately $70,000 in 2019, according to The Post –– but after accepting a voluntary separation agreement from the university and receiving a year’s worth of his salary to willingly leave his job as a tenured professor, he needs funding for the project. These days, Schwartz focuses on Mine Fire, though he commented in an interview that he needs to start to look for other sources of income. 

Schwartz has engaged with mutual aid since he was young: He was involved in politics throughout his life, and when he was in high school, an organization called Food Not Bombs distributed free food to homeless people and worked with the sanctuary movement, or local churches who provided shelter to immigrants, where he lived in Boston in the late 1970s and 1980s.

He moved to Athens County near the end of 2007 to take a job with Ohio University.

“I’ve always known about [mutual aid] because of [Food Not Bombs], basically, and at some point, it was clear to me that I was going to stay here longer than I was going to work for the university,” said Schwartz in an interview. 

Schwartz likes Athens County for its welcoming nature but sees its financial insecurity, too. Athens County was among the most food-insecure counties in Ohio in 2019 with a food insecurity rate of 18.9%, according to a Feeding America page. Schwartz saw a way to help: The land was fairly inexpensive, except for the property taxes, and he decided to own a piece of land to produce food for the community. Now, Schwartz grows most of the non-meat food he eats as well as enough to donate the excess. He also donates eggs from a flock of birds. Schwartz distributes some extra food to the volunteers who help him work the land, and he donates this excess to organizations in Athens County, including to Community Food Initiatives, an organization that educates and distributes food throughout the county. 

Now, Mine Fire needs to raise $25,000 for its operating budget and for a number of projects. Schwartz wants to register Mine Fire as a farm and a non-profit so that the state would pay its property taxes –– which amounted to $4,673.53 in 2020 –– and to prevent the group from paying sales tax on supplies. This way, the county would not lose out on the money from property taxes. The non-profit status would also make it easier for donors to make large contributions to the farm and for Schwartz to set up a program to teach others to farm. The funding will also support several building projects. 

“We don’t use power tools, but the house and stuff really needs to go solar,” Schwartz said. “We’re pretty good about having a really small carbon footprint, but it could be smaller and just kind of more economically efficient.”

Mine Fire also needs to rebuild a hooped greenhouse that existed two owners before Schwartz as well as a walk-in cooler. The greenhouse and cooler will help Mine Fire grow produce year-round.

“But it also just takes a fair amount of money just to kind of keep going and keep the birds fed and the dogs fed, and just to keep the compost turning, and stuff like that,” said Schwartz.

So far, Schwartz utilized social media to spread the word about the fundraiser. Schwartz posted the GoFundMe across Facebook groups like Mutual Aid Southeast Ohio, a community Facebook group 1,800 members strong that is oriented toward providing aid and building connections in the region, and on his personal Facebook and Twitter pages. Yet despite the number of times the GoFundMe has been shared on social media, as of this writing, the GoFundMe has only raised $3,132 –– just over a tenth of what Mine Fire needs to continue.

“There’s not really a time limit. I mean, eventually, I’ll run out of money, and I assume creditors will come and try and take the land or whatever,” said Schwartz. “Whatever it is that they do, but I’m going to try really hard to avoid that in various ways.”

Originally written on October 8, 2021, for a journalism course at Ohio University.