AUSTIN — Where there’s soil, hope can grow.

A small farm near Woodson Kindergarten is the site of the La Sureña Cooperative, a family-run organization of seven.

Despite its small size, its potential and opportunity is bountiful for the town. Just in its second year, La Sureña grew both physically, but also in its customer base relationships with Hy-Vee and Share Ground in St. Paul.

All in neat rows are fresh vegetables like the tomatillo, tomatoes, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, Serrano pepper, green beans and the dragon tongue bean. All are ready for picking and transporting.

The Latino Economic Development Cooperative helped the family support their agricultural business. Giving crucial instruction, the family was able to learn how to begin the process of starting their own venture, and what was needed to keep the cooperative growing.

“They were essential in almost every aspect of starting La Sureña,” said Julieta Cervantes, La Surena secretary. “They trained us how to interact with the community, how to find markets, how to grow operations, best agricultural practices and the opportunity to make our goals possible.”

In Gerrero, Mexico, Cervantes’ grandparents were farmers and worked with whatever land they had. Just a few basic tools, and the help from their families. So, when Cervantes’ mother came to the United States with her green thumb and work ethic, a small patch of land was rented to grow food for her family.

“After many years and only last year, did that little patch of land grow to where we could start to provide for the community,” Cervantes said.

“As for my stepdad (Guillermo Martin), he had to learn a lot about agriculture. He did not have a clue of the process from planting to harvesting vegetables.”

At first, the garden was meant for the family, but eventually grew into something that the community needed and wanted. Eventually, sales and orders from partners came, whether delivering boxes to the Austin Hy-Vee, to Shared Ground Marketing Cooperative.

La Sureña looks to grow its clientele and the amount of produce grown, and improve efficiency. The cooperative is hoping to expand its operations. The organization is leasing 1 acre from the city. There’s discussion about possibly growing to 5 acres for 2017.

For now, the cooperative only operates during the summer. The dream would be to run all-year round.

“We are currently working on renting or buying five acres of land to be able to accommodate the demand from Hy-Vee, Share Ground and our local customers,” Cervantes said. “Our 1-acre farm is not enough to keep up with demand. We already started to look for expansion options and make more efficient operations.”

Although Austin is still a relatively small town — a little more than 24,000 people, according to the U.S. Census — the community itself is diverse with a strong immigrant population.

La Sureña looked to reach out to different parts of the immigrant population because information about nutrition may differ from culture to culture and generation to generation. Cervantes explained that if more families were given more access to quality food, it would make the community healthier and bring people together through a common bond.

Although a small town, possibilities are endless for La Sureña and for the people who are growing their new lives there.

“The families can expand their horizons, even in a small town by inspiring and providing people hope that they can also achieve their dreams,” Cervantes said. “Even in a small town by inspiring and providing people hope that they can also achieve their dreams, even when they have left everything they have known behind in their respective countries.”