There is a very positive article about the St Mark Community Garden in The Olympian Newspaper. Check out a portion of the article that appeared on The Olympian’s website below.
Soundings: garden among efforts that aid our community
A labor of love is sprouting behind the Lutheran church on College Street.
The once-fallow field is home to a community garden that includes about 40 raised-bed gardens adopted by residents or used to grow food for the Thurston County Food Bank.
Starting with just a dozen raised beds in 2010, the church garden grew about 200 pounds of potatoes for the food bank, recalled church member and garden coordinator Gail F. Last year, the garden yielded 3,000 pounds of potatoes for the food bank.
Adding to the success of the garden, Lacey Parks and Recreation last year put the call out to the Lacey community, letting families know that garden plots behind the church were available for adoption. In addition, the Olympia Kiwanis Club, which operates three gardens for the food bank, provided technical assistance on the drip-irrigation system and donated the seed potatoes that this time of year have transformed into bushy green potato plants.
“We’ve had a great outpouring of community support for the garden,” Gail said.
One of the garden’s biggest supporters is South Puget Sound Community College’s dean of applied technology, Brent C. A member of the St. Mark Lutheran congregation, Brent helped make the garden a reality in 2010, but he credits fellow church member Michael D for planting the seed of an idea for a community garden on the church property years ago.
He knows full well that community gardens require a sustained effort, lots of community support and dedicated leadership to prosper and grow year after year.
After three years of steady growth, he’s confident this garden has a viable future, and plenty of space to expand.
“We’re looking for more partners,” he said.
Church members are also supplying funds to the food bank to make sure some 100 students at Mountain View Elementary School – it’s across the street from the church – receive weekend food packages. These are many of the same kids the city parks department feeds at its summer activity program weekdays at the elementary school.
Kudos to all the volunteers who get locally grown food into the hands of the hungry, building community one project at a time.