Victory Gardens
Yardley has a long history as a community that cares. Back in the days of the Underground Railroad, at least five places in this Delaware River town housed runaway slaves. For the past four decades, a good portion of the altruism has been centered at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, whose members meet in the 19th-century parish house every month to fix meals for elderly and shut-in residents across the Philadelphia region.
Barbara Taeffner Kulp enjoyed this generosity twice. “When I broke both my legs, St. Andrew’s fed my husband and myself in such abundance that with great thanks I had to say stop,” she says. “My husband—jokingly, I hope—asked me to break my legs every month because he loved the food.” When he passed away, the cards and calls were “unending,” Kulp says. They helped her know she was never alone.
The coronavirus ended the congregation’s proud 37-year streak of making meals together, but it didn’t break their spirit of giving—far from it. Instead, church members took to cooking in their homes. Soon, volunteers were serving up 1,000 meals and 400 containers of soup each week—almost ten times more food than before the pandemic. And many ingredients in those meals were homegrown. In the spring, St. Andrew’s provided seedlings—tomatoes, beans, basil, and more—to Yardley residents to plant at home. The gardeners then brought their bounty back to the church to share with area food banks.
“Forty percent of America’s produce in World War II came from victory gardens in backyards and at churches,” says St. Andrews’s rector, Rev. Hilary Greer. “I thought, What if we did that here?” To which the people of Yardley said “Amen.”
To read the stirring stories of our honorees, click around the interactive map at rd.com/nicest2020.
● Alabama Owens Cross Roads
● Alaska Anchorage
● Arizona East Gershon Lane, Tucson
● Arkansas Sardis
● Colorado Struggle of Love Foundation, Denver
● Connecticut Bloomfield
● Delaware Edgemoor Terrace, Wilmington
● Florida Pine Hills
● Georgia The Dream Center, Augusta
● Hawaii Kamiloiki Valley, Oahu
● Idaho Meridian
● Illinois Collinsville
● Indiana Doorsteps of Central Indiana Iowa
● Iowa City
● Kansas Olathe
● Kentucky Signature Health Care Nursing Facility, Elizabethtown
● Maine The Cedars, Portland
● Massachusetts Springfield
● Minnesota Victoria’s Ristorante and Wine Bar, Rochester
● Mississippi Florence Gardens, Gulfport
● Missouri Thousand Oaks, Parkville
● Montana Ronan
● Nebraska South 32nd Place, Lincoln
● Nevada Sparks New Hampshire Temple
● New Jersey Jefferson Washington Township Hospital, Turnersville
● New Mexico Bueno Para Todos Farm, Villanueva
● New York Riverdale
North Carolina Dirtbag Ales Brewery, Hope Mills
● North Dakota Minot
● Ohio Clintonville, Columbus
● Oklahoma Colefax Hill, Tulsa
● Oregon Hillsboro
● Rhode Island Belmont Market, Wakefield
● South Dakota Iroquois School District
● Tennessee Nashville
● Texas Highland Village
● Utah Backyards of Saratoga Springs
● Vermont Telehealth Access for Seniors, Barre
● Virginia Virtual Tip Jar, Hampton Roads
● Washington Bellden Café, Bellevue
● West Virginia Huntington
● Wisconsin Sassy Cow Creamery, Columbus
● Wyoming Casper