Urban farming, edible landscaping helps offset rising prices
By Pat McCaughan, June 09, 2008
[ENS, Los Angeles] For Alexandra McKay, 11, and Emma Dreyfuss,10, of Angeles Girl Scout Troop 245, the best part of watering tomato plants and releasing ladybugs at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church on June 8 was knowing they were helping out the environment and growing food for the hungry.
"We wanted to get involved in the community garden, because our troop meets at the church," McKay said. She pointed to ceramic tiles identifying each of 35 raised planting beds. "We helped put them in, too."
The Girl Scouts were among more than 150 volunteers and activists, environmentalists, neighbors, gardeners and parishioners who on Sunday celebrated the dedication of the Westchester congregation's community garden.
"The food we grow will be donated to local food banks and soup kitchens which feed disadvantaged families and homeless people," said the Rev. Peter Rood, Holy Nativity's rector, during the Sunday afternoon garden party.
"There is an important need for food, for folks who are hungry and struggling, suffering from food insecurity. I am fortunate to be pastor in a congregation that is willing to ask the question, what should we be doing to help others?" Rood told the gathering.
Partnering with the nonprofit Urban Farming to provide food to the Food Pantry LAX isn't the garden's only goal, however. An organic gardening class series is set to begin on June 21, and to include lessons on composting, "edible landscaping", environmental sustainability and healthy eating.
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| Rabbi Jason van Leeuwen blows the shofar (ram's horn) at dedication ceremony |
By transforming and "re-purposing" the church's lawn and 40-year-old junipers into organic fruits, vegetables and herbs and flowers, Rood is aiming for spiritual outreach and culture change.
"We are transforming part of our city footprint from ornamental to functional land use" to raise awareness of social justice and environmental issues, community building and taking positive action to make a difference, he said.
"We grow, organically and onsite, the flowers we use weekly for our events and services," he said. Commercial cut flowers are grown with a variety of pesticides, he said, and "nearly 70 percent of all flowers sold in the United States are imported. Importing requires extensive fossil fuels…and exacerbates global warming. The flowers we raise will enable us to remove our parish from these destructive cycles."
'Victory' gardens: a way to be 'done with hunger'
Urban Farming (UF) began with three gardens in Detroit, Michigan, in 2005 and partners with faith-based organizations like Holy Nativity and others to develop community gardens, said Joyce Lapinsky Lewis, the nonprofit agency's program development consultant.
"Now we have 500 gardens across the United States and in places like Jamaica and England. Our mission is to end hunger in our generation by planting food on unused land and space," Lewis said June 8.
Lewis and other community organizers across the nation say interest in community gardening is increasing, largely to offset hikes in food prices.
In metropolitan Atlanta, Bobby Wilson has seen "the largest increase in people interested in gardening" in the 16 years he has coordinated the inner city urban gardening program for the University of Georgia and served as cooperative extension agent for DeKalb and Fulton counties.
"Everybody is struggling right now" because of rising fuel and food prices. "This year we've implemented more than 35 gardens already." Wilson oversees a training program for gardeners that partners with local shelters to feed about 400 people a month. It empowers "poor people to feed the poorest of the poor," he said.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori blessed a community garden at St. Thomas the Apostle Church during an April 28 visit to Dallas. At that event, the Rev. Stephen Waller, St. Thomas' rector, said the garden was developed to "fight hunger right here where we live" and to reflect the United Nations Millennium Development Goals--an Episcopal Church priority--to eradicate hunger.
Episcopal Church websites across the country reflect a growing awareness and commitment to community gardening and offsetting food insecurity. Grace Church in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, gardens one-quarter acre of land, designating its produce for the local Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries, thus supporting the feeding of 1,200 families monthly.
Every Sunday after the 10:30 a.m. service, parishioners at St. Mary's, in Cadillac, Michigan, take turns weeding and tending the community garden. Its harvest also goes to local food banks.
St. Paul's Church, in Kansas City, Missouri, is expanding its "Mary and Martha" garden this year to include an area to harvest produce designated for area needy.
The Chattanooga Area Food Bank in Tennessee has a diverse group of faith communities among its partners, including St. Augustine's Catholic Church and St. Alban's Episcopal Church. The agency now has a waiting list for those who wish to participate in a newly-created 2,000-square-foot community garden.
"I've seen real movement, real awareness in the past few months to develop community gardens," said Lewis on June 8 at Holy Nativity, which is also an interfaith effort.
She said Urban Farming's "Include Food! when planting and landscaping" initiative seeks to create awareness by establishing gardens in any healthy environment, including churches, planters, on rooftops, in corporate landscaping, at schools, hospitals, and vacant lots.
"The gardens are modeled after the victory gardens created during World War II, when 20 million people grew 40 percent of the country's produce and they did all that with a poster campaign," she said. "Can you imagine what we can do with the Internet and television?"
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| Ladybugs are released into the garden by volunteers and Girl Scouts. |
"This garden will yield about one ton of food per year," she said. "If we average one pound per person that's 2,000 people who will have one pound of food they might not otherwise receive. It makes a significant difference to food banks, especially fresh produce, which is expensive to buy and keeps getting more expensive.
"This is an issue, not only for the hungry and homeless, but for everyone," said Lewis. If the movement continues to grow this way, she added: "I think in a few years we will be done with hunger."
'Living farmlands of a messianic world'
The day's festivities included traditional Irish music by Steve O'Loughlin and the Praties, a taco bar and a 'best Scarecrow' contest, as well as an offering by Aaron Hernandez, the congregation's poet-in-residence.
"As we are creating more food, we should think about consuming less, and producing less of the wrong kinds of food," Hernandez told the gathering.
A ceremonial planting of orange and tangerine trees followed Rabbi Jason van Leeuwen's sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn, and blessing of the garden.
"The Talmud says if you are planting a tree and the prophet Elijah should come and say behold, the messiah has come, first finish planting the tree," said van Leeuwen, of Congregation Tikvat Jacob in Manhattan Beach. "Do not underestimate the blessing of this moment--you are indeed cultivating crops, these are living farmlands of a messianic world."
Mohammed Aleem planted an orange tree on Sunday as part of the local interfaith network. "But this goes beyond interfaith issues, this addresses real community needs, it addresses human needs," said Aleem, the chief executive officer of www.islamicity.com. "I want to support it and to encourage all faith communities to be conscious of environmental humanity and get involved, because our duty is to help those needs."
Tom Lenert volunteers at the Food Pantry LAX and also tends the Holy Nativity plot gardened by St. Jerome Catholic Church, where he is a member. "I'm here to help feed clients of the LAX food pantry. My hope is that other churches--and not just churches, but individuals, too--will get involved," he said.
For Fr. Norman Priebe of St. Jerome's, the garden is a symbol to "the rest of us that we all ought to take better care of the earth. There is such a shortage of food in the world and we take it for granted in this part of the world."
Joanne Poyourow, who designed the site and is involved in Holy Nativity's Environmental Changemakers group, said the day's events represented the project's second phase. "The first phase was the cutting garden for the church flowers. The next phase will include cultivating orange and lemon and other citrus trees and maintenance of the growing plants." The tomato plants should be ready to harvest in about a month, she added, "and the basil will need to be trimmed back in a few weeks."
The ladybugs were released, Rood said, "because they are important to the ecosystem of the garden, they love the garden and the flowers and they eat other bugs. Plus they're fun."
Volunteer gardeners like Sara Train, 23, have laid claim to nearly all of the planting beds already, Rood said.
"I used to live in the neighborhood, but I moved," said Train, a parishioner at Holy Nativity. "Now I don't have space to garden where I am, so I like coming back and planting. I like knowing what we grow will help others and I want to spread the word that this really is a gift that keeps giving."
"There's a momentum, and excitement building. We want to do it in our neighborhood, too. It helps build community," said Sister Mary Rudy of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a master gardener who is also involved in the garden project.
"Try not to get the leaves wet," she advised girl scouts Emma Dreyfuss and Alexandra McKay. "Water low, water deep. Go way down to the roots."
For more information on community gardening, visit: www.holynativityparish.org or www.urbanfarming.org.
-- The Rev. Pat McCaughan is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for the dioceses of Province VIII. She is based in Los Angeles. All photos by Lynda Modaff