Community Garden Update

By Mel Shoaf, Garden Manager

What kind of picture comes to your mind when you hear or read: A Garden? Is it the wonderful smells and lovely blooms of your favorite flower? Or do you immediately picture a fresh, red, ripe tomato? Or maybe it is more spiritual—the serenity of a shady nook in the corner of your garden. You go there in the warm months to drink your morning coffee or to meditate at the end of a big day. The Bible starts our lives out in a garden. God provides for us a Garden of Eden and our needs are taken care of in that setting.

Two years ago, Ken McCammon approached Trinity about growing pepper plants. At the time, we brought up an idea of creating a garden at Trinity. While it did not come to fruition at that time, I did not give up, and at the end of 2017, we approved a small garden in the south lawn.

Ken tilled and fertilized the garden patch and also planted four rows of early crops. On May 20th, members of the congregation and several community members planted several more rows. One week later, Janet and I planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and several squash varieties. So far the garden has provided radishes, leaf lettuce, and green onions. I am in the garden Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. It has been a joy to work in and I have found that our neighbors appreciate it. I talk to many of them and always make sure to make them feel welcome in our garden. This is a real asset to our church and the community.

We, as members of society, strive to hep each other in many ways. The Grow Local Association in Lafayette has several community gardens throughout the city. The goal of their undertaking is to help people access fresh produce at no cost to them. We only ask that they respect the garden and if they have time, as they “pick a veggie, pull a weed.” This is our first year with a community garden, and hopefully will be the first of many gardens.

The Garden Planning Team discussed the goals and purpose of our garden, and how it relates to the church's mission and vision, summarized by: getting to know our neighbors, building relationships with God and community, and making disciples.

We developed the following goals:

• Encouraging healthy eating and living, which includes the spiritual as well as physical and
• providing tools for making changes such as offering recipes for using the garden produce.
• Fill the food gap in our neighborhood, which is an urban food desert. Part of this goal is educating ourselves about the issue of food insecurity.
• Building relationships with our neighbors.

We hosted the first Garden and Grill Meal on June 20. ## people attended, and a good time was held by all. The team in charge of the meals is as follows:

• Dinah Dalder  - Meal planning
• Lisa Drake - Entertainment/Music
• Steve Ash (June), Lindy Coady (July, August) - Set Up/Tear Down
• Mel Shoaf - Hospitality, which includes welcoming guests and "getting their name"

These meals are a great way to encourage healthy eating and create opportunities to build relationships with our neighbors. Come on out to the next meal on July 18 and please support our team leaders by volunteering for their areas, or helping recruit volunteers!!

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