Some lovegarden specifics

[Andrew McLeod]

A while ago, too long ago, I posted here about one of my many hare-brained schemes, which in this case was that faith communities should be finding underused land (including perhaps churchyard lawns) and putting it into food production.
The idea is becoming more relevant and urgent by the day. As the wheels come off the global economy, we're going to need to grow more of our own food. We can't tell how bad it's going to get, but I think that it's pretty safe to assume that it will get bad.
I think that a key part of making sure that society handles this in a civilized way is for us to grow as much food as possible, and make it freely available. At this time when we are most tempted to cling to what is ours, we must remember the miracle of the loaves and fishes, in which the very act of letting go made enough to go around.
So I'm going to post a little something here, which is a draft of a proposal that I've sent out to one of my churches (I'm fortunate enough to have three). Please feel free to plagiarize or adapt it to your own situation. I'll be developing this idea further and will post details here and at my general blog, which has moved to www.coopgeek.wordpress.com.
And by the way, my book will be out in the next couple of weeks, God willing. Stay tuned for the announcement.

OK, on to the lovegardens...

PROPOSAL:

We cannot predict how serious the nation’s financial crisis will get, but it seems safe to assume that it will worsen existing issues of food access. There are many potential responses to this, and one of them is to find ways to grow our own food. We recall that God told the exiles in Babylon, “plant gardens and eat what they produce.” (Jer 29:5)

This teaching may apply to our backyard gardens, but we should remember that not everyone has such an opportunity. Renters, who are often poor, are less likely to have the space and permission to plant gardens. The elderly or disabled may find maintaining a garden to be beyond their capabilities. Many of us at Flood find that the Bible challenges us to come out of our individual lives, and work together to create God’s kingdom through cooperative efforts.

One approach for how we might do this is to find a vacant lot in the neighborhood, but by having this garden on church property, it will be a more visible act to our neighbors and to each other.

We propose:

• A garden committee shall be formed to develop a plan for how to implement this vision. This committee would acquire the needed tools and materials, address any technical issues such as water access, plan the layout of the garden, raise or request any needed funds, and establish a schedule to make sure that basic maintenance is covered.

• The garden committee shall develop a proposal to establish how we would like to engage the neighborhood. This could include how we invite the neighbors to participate—both by working and harvesting—and signage explaining the garden.

• As a pilot project, this winter the garden shall begin with the mostly bare dirt under the sign near the corner. This would be planted with attractive edibles like chard and lettuce. The garden committee would also develop a plan for expanding the garden to include some part of the lawn next spring.

Thank you for your consideration of this idea, and may God bless you.

[Steven Hebbard]

I had this idea about 7 months ago. I approached one of the large African American Churches in my neighborhood that has a lot of completely unused grassed-over areas. The grounds manager heard me out and then said he would mention it to the folk in the church who actually work on the grounds. The matter was dropped and I haven't heard anything since. I think this sort of thing works best within your own congregation. I a friend of mine recently planted a community garden in an unused portion of her churches land. People in the neighborhood, her friends, and several members of her church came out to support the digging and planting process. Churches are so often at odds with their geographic communities and they, most at least, are really not feeling the inaccesability of fresh vegatables. The folk in my poor neighborhood will even occasionally turn down the free organic produce I offer (unless they are of the older generation that knew how to cook their own food). In short, a garden is great, but this crisis- if it does get significantly worse- will have to spawn a whole shift in thinking about food from a food community, to cooking, to tehniques of growing in tight spaces for our poorest citizens to truly benefit.

Cheers