Hello all, I am new to this listserv. I am intrigued by Adam's question of "What comes first?" The neighborhood/community interest in a garden or the garden itself? I am employed by an NPO that operates a food pantry in Baton Rouge, LA, as well as a mentoring program aimed at stabilizing low-income families housing situations. We are currently contemplating starting a community garden here at HOPE. We are blessed with quite a bit of flat, sunny land on a busy urban street (the most underutilized land in the neighborhood, in fact). We would like to grow a garden in order to stock fresh produce in our food pantry as well as to bring the community together in the realization that they do have the power to take control of their diet and not be so reliant on the corporate-based food distribution system currently operating in our country. But here's the rub? Do we go out and secure a large grant, hire a Gardening Coordinator, build raised beds and then throw a planting party, inviting the neighborhood? Or do we build grassroots support for the garden and make it more of a neighborhood project from the start? I am tend to favor option #2, but this is the long-run approach and could take a very long time. Whereas we are a well-established organization which does have the resources (and access to resources) to build a garden in a much more expeditious fashion. So what to do? I would love it for those of you on this list to hash it out with me. Ready, set, go!
Jonathan M. Hammett Case Worker Family Mentoring Program United Methodist HOPE Ministries (225) 355-0702 ext. 28 (225) 357-6351 fax jhammett at hopeministriesbr.org The mission of United Methodist HOPE Ministries is to coordinate ministries, provide resources & establish relationships that help the people we serve move toward self-sufficiency with dignity. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20061012/453db8d2/attachment.html
