Garden Report for 2010, Year 16
2010 Garden Report (year 16)
Garden Participants
Coordinators: (2) Maggie Lindberg, Barb Prokop
Garden Committee: (8)
Individual Volunteers: (112) Adults and youth, 105 gardeners, 7 drivers
Groups at the garden: (17) Summer Stretch Youth, (70) Little Angels Preschool and teachers, (8) Girl Scout troop, (105) KIWI kids program, (5) Casa Guadalupana volunteers
Total Participation: 327 people
Length of Season
4/10/08 – 10/21/08 (longest season, 28 weeks)
23 weeks of produce deliveries (record number of deliveries)
85 gardening sessions with volunteers (coordinators/committee members come additional times)
Approximate volunteers hours: 1,869 (as recorded in the sign-in notebook)
Harvest Totals: 11,058 lbs. (record harvest)
Produce donations: 961.1 Most of this was from the Farmer’s Market.
Total produce delivered: 12,019.1 lbs. (record amount)
Produce Recipients:
Christian Cupboard Emergency Food Shelf, Friends in Need Food Shelf, North Saint Paul Food Shelf, Casa Guadalupana House of Hospitality, Dorothy Day Center, and the Fall Festival.
Donations to garden: Garden shed, seeds and plants, soil amendments, pesticide for organic use on cole crops, tent stakes, gloves, baskets, hose parts, shelving, tiller maintenance.
Summary: Our “season” was about three weeks longer than other years with both earlier and later harvesting. We had a record breaking harvest total (6 tons!) due in part to adequate rainfall resulting in good yields in our heaviest crops and an early start to the season with great management of the seed plot. There was also a record amount of produce donated, a large part from the Thursday Farmer’s Market at Guardian Angels church and a few parish members.
Comments: Woodbury Lutheran Church had their first year growing food for the Christian Cupboard. They recorded 2,230 lbs harvested. Congratulations to them on the success of this new ministry! This significantly increased the amount of fresh produce distributed at that site.
We had several interviews and visits from other churches starting a similar outreach and from people interested in collaborative efforts to improve food security and the availability of fresh food for all. Barb and Maggie have been asked to participate in a group with the St. Paul and Minneapolis Council of Churches called the Faith-Based Edible Gardening Collaborative. Also both have been asked to join a Washington County group called Community Nutrition Action.
There will be an article published about our garden in the Catholic magazine called Today’s Parish written by Anne Neuberger. This will appear in the March 2011 issue.
We are especially thankful to the anonymous donor and those who helped install the garden shed!
As always, thanks to our committee and dedicated volunteers who contribute in many additional ways not mentioned. Your efforts have helped to bring fresh food to people needing food shelf support during our harvest months.