With The Garden District Corp., Sean McKay doesn’t just grow plants. He grows people.
After planning to become a music teacher, McKay’s life was changed when he sat through a college class on plant science in 2013. This class ignited an interest in growing food and unveiling inequities in food systems, he says.
In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Sean McKay grew an excess 700 pounds of food in his backyard and donated it to Lutheran Social Services.
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After his husband, Corey Joseph Brown, pointed out that this operation was not sustainable for their home’s garden, McKay assembled a board and started The Garden District Corp. in May 2021. Just like the plants, the nonprofit started to grow.
The Garden District now manages eight community gardens and urban farms across the Columbus region.
One is a redesigned garden at Columbus City Schools’ Berwick Alternative Elementary School, which is just down the street from McKay’s backyard garden that started it all.
From these eight gardens, the nonprofit distributed over 5,000 pounds of food across the region and donated almost $23,000 to people experiencing food insecurity in 2024.
All this work is an unpaid, volunteer labor of love for McKay, or his “7-9” before he clocks in to his 9-5 as the farm education coordinator at Mid-Ohio Food Collective.
He said the combination of his work at MOFC and Garden District provides him the reach of a large nonprofit organization with the grassroots movement of a community-focused initiative.
Katie Young, the farm-to-school/nutrition coordinator for Columbus City Schools, says McKay’s work brings awareness to the possibilities of what gardens can do to build community, and he does it all with a smile on his face.
“I love the way that he’s very inclusive with all of our students. He wants to make sure all of them can have a positive experience with growing food,” she says.
“I don’t know that he sleeps,” Young adds. “He’s constantly doing for others.”
Beyond growing plants, fighting food insecurity and educating the next generation, McKay cultivates people.
He says that he believes farming is for everyone who chooses the path. While Brown playfully disagrees, joking that farming isn’t for him, he says he is McKay’s No. 1 supporter regardless.
About Sean McKay
What is a challenge you have overcome? Widening my social lens and truly understanding the complex intersections that exist within our food system … how deeply issues like racial inequity, poverty, homelessness and food access are woven together.
What inspires you? I’m inspired by the process of discovery—uncovering how history, culture and policy shape our communities—and by the chance to turn that understanding into meaningful action.
What keeps you engaged? “Mission moments.” That’s what I call the everyday experiences that remind me why this work matters.
This story appeared in the December 2025 issue of Columbus Monthly as part of the Everyday Kindness Heroes feature package. Meet all of our honorees, and subscribe to Columbus Monthly here.
This article originally appeared on Columbus Monthly: Kindness Hero Sean McKay Grows Food for the Community
Reporting by Sophia Veneziano, Columbus Monthly / Columbus Monthly
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
