Growing a Community Garden
Members from St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Florissant, The Episcopal Church of All Saints and Ascension in Northwoods, and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Ferguson broke ground on a new garden project that will grow food and build relationships in their communities.
The project is called the North County Episcopal Communal Garden and is located on the grounds of St. Barnabas' Church. About 18 people from the three parishes came together on Saturday, April 17 to build raised garden beds and begin planting their crops. So far they have planted cool weather crops, like lettuce, kale and collards. They'll be planting additional warmer weather crops in June.
The produce grown in the garden will be distributed through St. Stephen's food pantry and other community food banks.
The Rev. Mary Haggerty, priest-in-charge at St. Barnabas, first came up with the idea of a garden on the day of her ordination to the priesthood in July of 2020. She says she looked out at St. Barnabas' beautiful property and started dreaming of ways to use that land.
"I hope it becomes an important place in this community," Haggerty said. "It's a way for us to build community with the North County churches, and also to invite other community members in."
Haggerty says in addition to the parish collaboration, they are also working with students at McClure North High School, which is across the street from St. Barnabas, to create a sign for their community garden.
"It's not just about the food -- although that's important," Haggerty says. "It's a way to honor God's creation and a way to build up our communities."
Each parish pitched in a small amount of funding from their budget to help their garden grow, but this project is really made possible by a grant from Gateway Greening, a local organization that educates and empowers people to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture. Gateway Greening provided $1,000 worth of materials to create the garden -- dirt, compost, shovels, wood, dirt, and more.
Members from the three parishes are developing teams to maintain and harvest the garden. There will also be special events and workdays for the community. Gateway Greening will continue to make grants available each year.
We look forward to hearing and seeing more about this community garden project!
Special thanks to Holly Garrett for sharing the pictures below.
Members from St. Barnabas, St. Stephens, and All Saints and Ascension came together April 18 to build a new community garden on the grounds of St. Barnabas in Florissant.Building a Community Garden
Tags: News