A G.O.D. Community Garden Spring Update: A Tribute to our Volunteers!
This summer is going to be a wonderful time of growth in our community garden! Though we’ve put in the work to experience a great season, we’re also experiencing a growth on our volunteer front that we can’t help but thank God for!
We have three new farm interns who will put in a collective 70 hours of labor each week! They will be learning all of the components of what it takes to run a sustainable, bio-intensive garden. The addition of these volunteers, with hearts motivated to learn the importance of food production, is a gift beyond measure!
Our local farmers market has now opened and has propelled us into high gear! With the help of volunteer Ryan Roberts, a parent of an Academy for G.O.D. student, we recently converted a 5x8 enclosed trailer into a mobile refrigerator. This helps us accommodate the ever-increasing harvest from our 1/2 acre mini-farm.
Our C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) program has grown significantly this year. We are now providing fresh, organic produce for over 50 families on a weekly basis! Along with a wide variety of produce, customers are receiving strawberry jam from our own berries, and farm fresh eggs from our own chickens. Volunteers also make this possible—from processing the food to preparing it for market, we couldn’t do our market days without them!
Our beehives have been buzzing with new life this spring. After some hard losses in the winter, we are grateful to have over doubled the size of our apiary by splitting hives and capturing multiple swarms. Our beekeepers are all volunteers, putting in extra hours to create a valuable and delicious resource. Our main beekeeper, Jeff Sherrod, has been training several others interested in the art to not only help our community garden, but be able to empower them to extend this skill in each of our international regions!
Thank you for your interest, volunteerism, and support in our community garden! With last year yielding over 8,000 pounds of food, we are well on our way to exceed that in 2016. This is in no short supply due to our volunteers, who contribute nearly 700 hours each month! THANK YOU!
“ Volunteering in Hopewell Gardens is about so much more than just gardening. It’s the type of work that allows for simultaneous reflection and conversation. For me, these times are the perfect opportunity to process what I’m learning in God’s Word, and to invest in my relationships with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s more than just a gardening shift. It’s an investment in God’s workmanship. ”
— Stephany Dailey, Garden Volunteer
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