Today I’m pleased to provide a follow-up to a blog I posted in late April about a garden improvement project at Webster NY HOPE.
For the past 25 years, Webster NY HOPE has been helping our neighbors in need by providing food to as many as 80 Webster families each week. For the last ten of those years, the agency has been supplementing their food distribution with fresh vegetables, harvested from a large garden created in 2015 by Girl Scout Katie Roy, who built it as a Gold Award project.
The garden has been a tremendous asset; last year alone, HOPE volunteers harvested more than 500 pounds of fresh produce, which was often distributed on the same day that it was picked.
But over the last decade, the garden had fallen into disrepair, so NY HOPE decided to give it a big upgrade. The idea was to replace the old, worn-out beds with 27 raised, sturdy metal containers, allowing for plenty of room in between for access and, if necessary, adding more containers. As an added benefit, each container could be sponsored by a community group, or perhaps in memory of a family member.
The project began in earnest in late April, when more than 30 community volunteers gathered in Holy Trinity’s Murphy Hall for what NY HOPE Director Margery Morgan called a “mass assembly day.”
“The Knights of Columbus helped out, HOPE volunteers, volunteers from the Presbyterian Church and Webster Methodist, and we just made a day of it.” she said. “And then it took hours of work after that,” removing the old beds, fixing the fence, and actually planting the new gardens.
The next big challenge was to solicit sponsors for the 27 new containers. That doesn’t sound like an easy task, but turns out it was. In no time, NY HOPE had not only sold the original 27 sponsorships, but actually had so many requests that next year they’ll be adding nine more gardens to meet the demand.
On Sunday June 30, the new gardens were officially opened with a ribbon cutting and blessing from Holy Trinity Deacon Gary Terrana and Fr. Jorge Ramirez.
Morgan explained that the plantings chosen for the gardens were selected in part for what grows well with what, and what doesn’t grow well, “to maximize the benefits.” She added,
We keep track of what we put in every year and see what our recipients, the families that come to HOPE, like. We’ve stayed away from hot peppers; they don’t seem to go. We’ve gotten more sweet peppers, zucchini, tomatoes … beets, because we have a large Ukrainian population and beets fly off our shelves, potatoes, garlic … We try to keep it going all season.
Now that the gardens are growing healthy and lush, many hands will be needed to keep the beds weeded and watered and, when the time comes, to harvest the produce. NY HOPE has posted a form on their website where interested volunteers can sign up for a week (or two if you want!) to take care of what needs to be done during that time. This is a great volunteer opportunity for service organizations, families, or individual community members.
Take a drive by and check out these beautiful gardens for yourself. They’re located behind Holy Trinity Church, 1460 Ridge Rd., just south of the cemetery.
By the way, special thanks to Welch’s Greenhouses for providing 18 yards of enhanced topsoil at a deep discount, and to Premier Sign Systems for donating all of the 27 signs.
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(posted 7/7/2024)
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