The First Presbyterian Community Garden is a partnership with Marion Polk Food Share to provide fresh produce to the local AWARE Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and gardening space for Head Start, Family Building Blocks and other community members.
The community garden is about thanksgiving. This congregation faithfully continues to provide the space and water for a very productive garden and the opportunity for the community to participate. We are thankful that we have six regulars assisting in the garden. Each has a special gift! Kathy built trellises for our tomatoes and other climbing vegetables. Walt has cleared and tilled areas to plant vegetables, flowers and shrubs and that includes walkways to access all of our spaces. He also moves compost and wood chips when needed. Sam has become an expert at planting, weeding and picking produce, especially basil. Roger and Vickie joined us to pack produce following the fire at the food bank. Packaging allowed all of our fresh produce to stay in Woodburn. They also helped rake and remove leaves in the garden. We have a long list of volunteers. Some whose names we know and others whose names are unknown to us. We are very thankful for Linda who is dedicated to this wonderful food outreach helping the community of Woodburn.
Many thanks come back to us from those community members who are able to grow their own gardens.
- From Meals on Wheels which uses our fresh fruit in their meals
- From the kids who plant and pick peas, pick and eat strawberries and raspberries
- From the kids who are amazed at sunflowers and how tall they grow
- For the salsa making ingredients the garden provided for our kid and adult community
- Most important of all, the thanks from the hundreds of food bank clients who received our over 1100 pounds of fresh garden produce. The lettuce and peppers were the best!
