Hope Garden- 2018 Report



Pine Island Church’s Hope Garden Committee is very happy to report that we have continued to nurture our spirit with planting and harvesting on our Q Avenue community garden site. We produced vegetables to feed the underserved in the greater Kalamazoo County, most importantly Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes food pantry site at Kalamazoo’s Ministry with Community. During our harvesting Fridays, we had an open roadside table to provide free food with passers by (with donations accepted). Many stopped by and many visited on multiple Fridays!

We are very grateful to have received a $1,500 Emerging Ministries Grant from the Presbytery of Lake Michigan, and $500 from the First Presbyterian Church, Kalamazoo.  These helped us to pay for the use of our equipment, electricity, seeds and starter plants.

3,348 pounds of produce were harvested. Our produce selections included: green beans, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, cabbage, potatoes, eggplants, zucchini, green beans, various greens including kale and collard greens, rhubarb, Butternut winter squash, okra, muskmelons, watermelons, asparagus and an herb garden that included basil, chives, sage and lavender.

Seventeen volunteers worked a total of 598.5 hours, 74 8-hour work days! Thirteen Pine Island Church members contributed the majority of hours and we welcomed four non-church members into our field. Our larger garden area was supported by these volunteers and another portion of the garden was subdivided and cultivated by five of our Pine Island Church families.
We plan to continue gardening in 2019 on the same cultivated land area and hope to include more community gardeners and more volunteers.

We thank God for our volunteers and for another successful garden year!

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Carol J. Pratt
Hope Garden Co-coordinator

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