2012 - Cooperative Extension

THE WINSTON-SALEM FOUNDATION

2012 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY | 2011 ANNUAL REPORT

NOURISHING

OUR COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY GRANTS

NOURISHING A NEIGHBORHOOD NC COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE, FORSYTH COUNTY

O

N ANY GIVEN SUMMER EVENING, neighbors carefully tend to

vegetables in the West Salem Community Garden. Eighteen raised vegetable beds hold a lush collection of seasonally appropriate crops, including tomatoes, okra, eggplant, carrots, radishes, colorful flowers, basil, thyme, and other herbs.

Plastic bags full of fresh vegetables dangle along the split rail fence lining the garden edge until someone stops by to pick one up.

“If you want the food, it is available,” notes Jeff Yates, a Cooperative Extension master gardener volunteer and mentor to this community garden who enjoys sharing with and learning from other gardeners.

As neighbors dig in the dirt, weed, and water the plants together, they sow seeds for food and for friendships. But the real beauty of the garden comes from the many ways it touches the community.

“It’s two-fold,” says Del Perry, who founded the garden in 2004. “The people who are here usually have a better community sense of the needs in the neighborhood, and certainly people who need the food benefit from it.”

Irma Jackson, a master gardener who also lives in the community, says, “Without somebody thinking about these people, some of them would fall through the cracks.”

In 2004, Perry asked, and Piedmont International University agreed, to allow neighbors to use its land on the corner of South Green and Bank Streets for a community garden. The West Salem community is diverse

[ 1 4 ] N O U R I S H I N G O U R CO M M U N I T Y

the winston-salem foundation annual report

and includes renters, homeowners, and large and small businesses.

Residents come from a range of socioeconomic means and ethnicities.

The garden serves as a central place where people can stop and chat.

Garden chairs beneath a big shade tree are placed there as a gathering spot.

Jeremy Holderfield works in the neighborhood and has enjoyed getting to know folks of different ages who garden together. “It’s a direct way of helping people,” he says.

West Salem’s garden is one of the 100 community gardens Mary Jac Brennan with the Forsyth Cooperative Extension Service supports as community garden resource coordinator. Not only does she work directly with the community gardens, she has also developed gardening leadership through a mentoring program in which volunteer master gardeners and other experienced area gardeners are matched with community gardens to share their expertise.

Brennan has also begun linking community gardens to nearby local food pantries that give fresh produce to individuals who need it. And the bounty is growing: last year, the West Salem gardeners alone gave away 595 bags of fresh vegetables, and this year’s goal is 1,000 bags.

Community gardener Ledon Lopez, originally from New Jersey, enthusiastically offers to share his recipe for the vegetarian lasagna he has made with eggplant and other vegetables that he’s growing.

“All of us, it just brings the community together,” Lopez says. “You get to know your neighbors and help neighbors.”

THE FOUNDATION AWARDED $40,000 to support the Cooperative Extension Service’s community garden resource program in 2010 and granted $35,000 in 2011 to support the program for a second year.

The grant enabled the agency to hire a community garden resource coordinator, to establish a mentoring program for community gardens, and to support 100 community gardens that gave away approximately 8,000 pounds of fresh produce in 2011.

COMMUNITY GRANTS

NOURISHING A NEIGHBORHOOD NC COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE, FORSYTH COUNTY

O

N ANY GIVEN SUMMER EVENING, neighbors carefully tend to

vegetables in the West Salem Community Garden. Eighteen raised vegetable beds hold a lush collection of seasonally appropriate crops, including tomatoes, okra, eggplant, carrots, radishes, colorful flowers, basil, thyme, and other herbs.

Plastic bags full of fresh vegetables dangle along the split rail fence lining the garden edge until someone stops by to pick one up.

“If you want the food, it is available,” notes Jeff Yates, a Cooperative Extension master gardener volunteer and mentor to this community garden who enjoys sharing with and learning from other gardeners.

As neighbors dig in the dirt, weed, and water the plants together, they sow seeds for food and for friendships. But the real beauty of the garden comes from the many ways it touches the community.

“It’s two-fold,” says Del Perry, who founded the garden in 2004. “The people who are here usually have a better community sense of the needs in the neighborhood, and certainly people who need the food benefit from it.”

Irma Jackson, a master gardener who also lives in the community, says, “Without somebody thinking about these people, some of them would fall through the cracks.”

In 2004, Perry asked, and Piedmont International University agreed, to allow neighbors to use its land on the corner of South Green and Bank Streets for a community garden. The West Salem community is diverse

[ 1 4 ] N O U R I S H I N G O U R CO M M U N I T Y

the winston-salem foundation annual report

and includes renters, homeowners, and large and small businesses.

Residents come from a range of socioeconomic means and ethnicities.

The garden serves as a central place where people can stop and chat.

Garden chairs beneath a big shade tree are placed there as a gathering spot.

Jeremy Holderfield works in the neighborhood and has enjoyed getting to know folks of different ages who garden together. “It’s a direct way of helping people,” he says.

West Salem’s garden is one of the 100 community gardens Mary Jac Brennan with the Forsyth Cooperative Extension Service supports as community garden resource coordinator. Not only does she work directly with the community gardens, she has also developed gardening leadership through a mentoring program in which volunteer master gardeners and other experienced area gardeners are matched with community gardens to share their expertise.

Brennan has also begun linking community gardens to nearby local food pantries that give fresh produce to individuals who need it. And the bounty is growing: last year, the West Salem gardeners alone gave away 595 bags of fresh vegetables, and this year’s goal is 1,000 bags.

Community gardener Ledon Lopez, originally from New Jersey, enthusiastically offers to share his recipe for the vegetarian lasagna he has made with eggplant and other vegetables that he’s growing.

“All of us, it just brings the community together,” Lopez says. “You get to know your neighbors and help neighbors.”

THE FOUNDATION AWARDED $40,000 to support the Cooperative Extension Service’s community garden resource program in 2010 and granted $35,000 in 2011 to support the program for a second year.

The grant enabled the agency to hire a community garden resource coordinator, to establish a mentoring program for community gardens, and to support 100 community gardens that gave away approximately 8,000 pounds of fresh produce in 2011.