Food Pantry Garden 2020 Review

Season in Review

Thank you to all who volunteered, donated and prayed for the garden this year!  We produced ~1400lbs of peas, beans, melons, corn, tomatoes and squash.  We had ~60 volunteers give their time with a total of over 450 volunteer hours donated.  Even in the midst of a pandemic, our garden was bountiful!

Some highlights in the garden this year:

• A group of middle school and high school youth regularly helped out in the garden throughout the summer. Thank you to the members of the GS Garden Club- you all are awesome!
• AmeriCorps sent volunteers one Sunday afternoon in September for 5 hours of hard work! We are so grateful for the relationships we built and the help we received in the garden.
• Our garden got a new sign this summer—check it out when you pass by GS Verona Campus.
• We had a high school garden intern this summer, a big thank you to Heather Swartz for her help and dedication in the garden.
• Our compost bins were busy this summer, full of all the weeds and waste from the garden that turned into rich additions to our soil.
  

  

Growing in Love

When I think about our garden, that old verse from a nursery rhyme pops into my head, “Mary, Mary… how does your garden grow?”

How does the Good Shepherd Food Pantry Garden grow?

With love, care, and through connections between people.

Each squash that was harvested and every bean picked was lovingly tended by volunteers who grew this produce so that others would have good food to eat. Not only that, but when volunteers work out in the garden it is inevitable that they will start talking and not even our masks could stop friendships from forming!

A special thank you to our garden leaders this summer, Julie Johnson and Max Seeland. Even when it was muddy, the corn wasn’t getting pollinated, and the tomatoes were diseased, Julie and Max were still out there working and keeping the garden growing.

Things to look forward to next year:

• We planted raspberry bushes!
• We are putting together a Bee Team to plan for new beehives!  (If you are interested in helping with beekeeping at Good Shepherd, please contact Pastor Dara, dschuller@gslcwi.com)