Community Gardening and Sharing

Comment

Comment by Mark on July 5, 2011 at 5:05pm

From George Bernard Shaw:

The best place to seek God is in the garden; you can dig for Him there.

Comment by Nancy Michaelis on June 27, 2011 at 11:46am

Hi! I just got off the phone with a woman from AmpleHarvest.org. It's an organization that's trying to, on a national level, match gardeners/growers with food pantries that would like to offer fresh produce. Right now they're trying to accomplish two things: 1) get the word out to pantries and have them register (it's free and easy to do!), and 2) get the word out to gardeners to donate your extra produce and spread the word to others.

 

Ample Harvest currently has almost 4000 pantries registered, but with something like 30,000 of them in the country, there's a ways to go yet. Please check out their web site and help spread the word!

Comment by Erin Cummisford on August 4, 2010 at 3:28pm

Mar-Lu-Ridge Outdoor Ministry

As I write this, we are receiving the first rains in 4 weeks. Our temperatures in Maryland have been as high as 100 degrees, but all is well and our campers have happily watered our new garden every day. The idea for our Garden of Hope sprang from our summer curriculum, Keeping the Earth, and from our desire to involve our campers in hands-on activities as they learn more about how food grows and eventually ends up on their plates. Playing in the dirt seemed like the perfect fit. Funding from the ELCA World Hunger’s Education/Advocacy grant allowed us to establish a garden in our day camp area. We installed a 7.5 foot high deer fence, so that any veggies grown could make it to the local soup kitchens, not into the bellies of our resident deer population. Despite the heat and lack of rain, we have some tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and squash coming on the vine. While our harvest will be small this first season, our campers have had the chance to plant, tend and learn about their food. We encourage them to take these lessons home, and help their families establish similar gardens. Painting boards to decorate the garden is another favorite activity – it’s looking good!

Twirling the compost tumbler has become a daily activity for our campers in the mountain-top section of our property. There is no good soil for a garden here, but these campers see the garden when they hike to Area 3 each week for a sleep-out. Lessons about composting are taught in Nature each week as well. The coolest thing that is happening in this area of camp is the daily opportunity to contribute a quarter to ELCA World Hunger when they visit the store each day. A running tally is kept, groups try to outdo each other, and when the weekly total is announced, they are all amazed at what they have done. So far this summer, we have raised $200 in quarters!

As we learn to care for our brothers and sisters in need, we remember one of our summer verses: “I have come that you might have life – life in all is abundance.” John 10:10b

Sarah Lefler
Director of Operations
Mar-Lu-Ridge

Comment by Erin Cummisford on July 7, 2010 at 1:21pm

June 31, 2010
Carol Joy Holling Camp, Ashland, Nebraska

Our Hunger Garden at Carol Joy Holling Camp (CJH) is thriving! Even with an over abundance of rain, the radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, and squash are producing! Kara Goddard, our Summer Gardener, is keeping a good watch on our crop and keeps the campers involved in weeding and harvesting! The first harvest was a couple of weeks ago with the crop going to Table Grace Ministries in Omaha, NE.

Table Grace Ministries provides both a food pantry to Omaha residents, as well as, with the help of Chef Matt Weber, instructs single parent families how to cook healthy and affordable meals. The produce that the Hunger Garden provides adds nutritional options to the meals.

Matt came out to camp yesterday to thank the campers for their work and to tell them about Table Grace Ministries. Matt took the second harvest of produce with him!!

Our next project is to replant the beans! Too much rain!

Thanks to ELCA World Hunger to help make this ministry possible.

Peace, Pr. Brad E. Meyer
NLOM Director/Programs

Comment by Erin Cummisford on July 7, 2010 at 12:26pm

Last weekend, a Mennonite congregation in my area organized a gleaning worship service at a local farm on Sunday morning instead of a traditional service. I wasn't able to attend, but what a great idea! Sometimes, there is produce that isn't harvested by the farmer for one reason or another -- in Lake County IL, the farmer can contact this gleaning team and they will get volunteers to gather the food and deliver it to a local food pantry. I found it particularly refreshing that this church combined the gleaning with a worship service at the farm. Next time I hope I can participate too.

Comment by Christopher Carpenter on June 9, 2010 at 7:57pm

Great group topic!
Wondering if we should connect with the community garden projects that we are funding and invite them to join The Table and this group?
C