Community Gardens OFFER SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
By BethAnne Brink-Cox, House and Home Feature Writer
When it seems like winter will never end, paging through seed catalogs and planning a garden is a marvelous way to bring spring a little closer and a little sooner. No one knows that better than Seed to Feed, a program of Church Community Services in Elkhart County. Its mission is to establish food security by providing fresh, local produce to those in need, and they work alongside the organization’s food pantry to achieve this. Gabby Parrish, Seed to Feed director, said the program began in 2011 with two gardens and two cash crop fields. These days, there are three kinds of gardens: Production Gardens, which create garden plans for growing produce that will be given to food pantries in Elkhart County; Community Learning Gardens, which create garden plans for educating the community in the art of growing produce for healthy eating, while donating excess crops to Seed to Feed; and Partner Gardens, a separate entity which develops garden plans and provides its own resources for gardening, while still donating excess food to Seed to Feed. There is also a 30 by 100 foot greenhouse now. Threequarters of this space is used to grow produce year ‘round; at this time of year it’s cool weather crops, such as spinach and lettuce, 26 | Michiana House and Home | March 2022 |
with no artificial lighting. For later seasons there is a big focus on crops such as tomatoes and “Beans! We can never get enough beans!” Parrish said. The other quarter of space is used to grow plants that will be set out at the proper time–as many as 20,000 plants will be needed. Parrish said the greenhouse is next door to one of their non-profit pantries, which serves an average of 2,500 clients/families every month. “We have walk-in coolers and freezers now, so we can store what is raised
