GOING GREEN
More community gardens are growing harvests to help local charity organizations
With the arrival of spring, local gardeners are in full force, preparing beds and planting seeds.
Among them are a number of green thumbs who are getting their hands dirty for a cause — working in community donation gardens, where the harvests are handed over to charitable organizations.
Annie’s Garden, located at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, 1111 S. Cherry St. in Tomball, provides produce for the food pantry at St. Vincent de Paul Society.
The Tomball Community Garden, located at Tomball United Methodist Church, 1603 Baker Drive, grows vegetables for Tomball Emergency Assistance Ministries.
Bill and Muriel Williams NAM Community Garden, located at Plymouth United Church, 5927 Louetta Road, harvests with Northwest Assistance Ministries food pantry in mind, as does the Shepherd’s Garden, at Christ the Good Shepherd, 18511 Klein Church Road, in addition to a number of other local charitable organizations.
All of these gardens are now especially in need of volunteers from the community to keep their efforts going.
“Now that spring is coming, we need the most help,” Ve-
ronica Benitez, manager of Annie’s Garden, said. “I’m looking everywhere for volunteers — high schools, Scout troops. Everybody is welcome to work.”
Most come out on the Saturday workdays, from 9 to 11 a.m., but Benitez said she can schedule volunteer hours at any time.
“No experience is necessary,” she said.
Stephanie Baker, manager of the Tomball Community Garden, is in the same boat. The work days are from 9 to 10 a.m. every Thursday.
“It takes a lot of people to work on something this big,” she said. “Most of our volunteers are not church members and it’s certainly not a requirement.”
Baker said that the garden produces about 1,000 pounds of food on its 20 beds.
“We’re providing a healthy source of produce,” she said. “A lot of people put a lot of love into it.”
Baker added that volunteering is an ideal way to learn about gardening.
Shepherd’s Garden, a mission of Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Community, is managed by Sheila Haskins, who has been involved for the past 12 years. “A parishioner had available land, and we wanted to put it to use,” she said.
The garden is 100 percent dedicated to donations and recipients include Northwest Assistance Ministries, St. Anne’s Food Pantry in Tomball, Prince of Peace and Magnificat House’s Loaves and Fishes Program.
Haskins said last year, the garden produced 6,000 pounds of produce that were given to charitable organizations. There are 28 raised beds, each measuring 4-by-30 feet on the plot.
“You don’t have to be a member of the church to help with the garden,” she said. “We’re definitely a community garden, and we always need volunteers.”
The garden became a year-round project about four years ago instead of just planning in the spring and summer.
Haskins said this allows volunteers to provide more food to those in need. “We need to improve diets for everyone,” she said. “That’s why we’re dedicated to this. We’re trying to produce as much as we can to give away.”
She said providing fresh fruits and vegetables can make a real difference for the recipients’ diets – since produce is often more expensive than less healthy alternatives. Volunteers want to also give families hope, she added.
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow,” she said.
For individuals who would like to help a worthy cause and take home some produce themselves, the donation garden at Plymouth United Church is an ideal option.
Garden manager Judith Walden said it all started with a group of church members 25 years ago, with Bob and Muriel Williams at the helm. The garden has since been named after the couple.
Walden said that the garden lay fallow for a few years and was revived in 2012, right around the time she joined. A year later, she became team leader.
The 2,100-square-foot garden regularly produces about 2,500 pounds of food a year.
“We’re able to do it, but it’s a giant project and we desperately need help,” Walden said.
She encourages area residents to come out and volunteer. Most of the food is donated to the Northwest Assistance Ministries food pantry.
Recently, the garden was reorganized. Instead of being fully dedicated to charities, community members are also invited to have their own beds to grow produce for their families.
“Whatever is in excess, they donate,” Walden said. “We always have space available, and if they need to learn to do it, we’ll help them.”
There are seven raised beds, each 5-by-50 feet, as well as 15 fruit trees in the orchard. The church also has a 3-acre field, which could be turned into additional garden plots for interested community members.
The force behind the creation of these donation gardens is local nonprofit Urban Harvest. The organization is focused on the local food movement and its three main programs center around farmers markets, gardening education and community gardens.
Sandra Wicoff, executive director, said the nonprofit was established in 1994 to help individuals gain access to healthy foods to feed themselves and revitalize the community. Now Urban Harvest supports more than 100 community gardens.
“We offer a class on how to start a community or school garden,” Wicoff said. “And we offer support. We do a site visit; we have workdays where we match volunteers. Our community gardeners can also take some of our classes for free.”
The nonprofit also offers networking and social opportunities for gardeners and volunteers so they can share best practices.
Wicoff explained that the types of gardens vary. There are gardens that offer an opportunity for neighbors to grow food together, school gardens that provide a hands-on learning environment and donation gardens used to produce fresh fruits and vegetables to feed those in need.
Having gardens in the community is vital, Wicoff added. “It increases access to healthy food,” she said. “And it keeps everything local, which has bigger implications for the environment. It’s critical.”