Community Gardening

[GLEN FAUBLE]

Here I am, getting ready to meet with my church’s Mission Committee this afternoon. My plan is to create a rather significant project where we go out and make available free food for those in need throughout our local churches in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Has anyone ever accomplished this with success and how did you accomplish this?

Thank you in advance for your responses and guidance.

Keep on growing
Glen

[mckr3441]

Hi Glen, What an ambitious project you are planning. Many of the churches in our area arel very involved in donating to the food banks. I'm not sure how many of them have SFGs but I do know they have BIG gardens! Our food banks depend on the churches and church members private gardens.

One thing you might suggest is that if a church is going to plant a garden for this purpose that with a SFG they can get 100% of the yield in just 20% of the space they would use for a row garden. If they really have the space for a row garden then using the SFG method would increase their yield by -- oops math brain freeze here -- would that be 400% or 500%. Anyway you get the idea. With SFG the yields are so much greater. Plus, there's no weeding!

Another, and even better, way is to teach those who are in need how to do SFG for themselves so they can grow their own food this summer. Your churches could provide for them until they get the hang of it and supplement if they need more. Have you read Mel Bartholomew's book All New Square Foot Gardening? He's a great proponant for doing this. You know, "teach a man to fish..."

Best of luck to you. Please keep us posted on your progress. I'll be watching.

[Daynannan]

No tips just a "good for you!" This post reminded me of our food pantry. Maybe I'll plant an extra zucchini plant. I'm thinking about adding another box to my collection.

Excited to see how it goes.

Dayna

[mckr3441]

Dayna, why don't your show your food pantry contributors how to SFG so they have even MORE food?

[mckr3441]

Glen, how's your church's community garden project going? We would all be interested. Please give us some feedback.

[gettip]

My daughter saw on a TV program last year (Plant a Row for the Hungry) but they encouraged people to plant one extra row of something in their gardens and that you would give that fresh produce to the local food pantry/kitchen. The show indicated that these places lack fresh produce on a regular basis and this was a good way to help. So this year we decided to put in one more 4x4 square for the local pantry/kitchen. The website is

http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=2696

[mckr3441]

Helloooo Gettip ,
You found your Regional Forum!We've been waiting for you.
This forum is a very good place to post your climate specific questions. We have a lot of Ohioans here and we can help each other with Zone related stuff.

I hope we see you here often.

[Sponsored content]