A picture of the garden in 2010, one year after we began our agricultural efforts on our property at our headquarters.
If you had put a time-lapse camera on the plot of our community garden 8 years ago, you would have watched what was a small, experimental garden plot turn into the fully operational urban farm that it is today.
G.O.D. Community Garden, end of 2016.
A few years later, you would have seen a couple full-time farmers, Seth Davis and Geoff Hartnell, managing a host of volunteers week after week to do the consistent, sometimes tedious work necessary for a successful farming operation. You would even find some kids from the Academy for G.O.D. in their overalls and boots learning the basics of farming and harvesting vegetables along the way.
Some of the most exciting things happening at the farm, however, would not be captured by that time-lapse camera. The produce deliveries made to widows in the neighborhood, the opportunity to participate in the local farmer’s market, the privilege of providing tasty vegetables for student lunch at the Academy, implementing successful practices we learn in developing world countries – these are the wonderful fruits of our labor that continue to make the effort worth it.
Moving forward, you will see a little shift in the pattern of the time-lapse as we reposition the garden plot on our property and prepare to expand our efforts in providing fresh, organic produce to two nearby public schools.
Students at the Academy for G.O.D. harvest carrots during gardening class. Student lunch at the Academy is supplemented by produce grown in the garden.
We will be providing tomatoes and peppers for school lunches at Andrew Jackson Elementary School and DuPont Hadley Middle School. As you may know, fresh, local produce is not the standard on the school lunch menu. We are excited for kids, as we have observed at the Academy, to further appreciate the taste and nutrition of fresh vegetables.
While there are no time-lapse cameras to capture all that hard work, there’s plenty to be thankful for regarding our farming efforts. Like the rest of what we do as an organization, we are happy that people and their well-being are at the center of this program - our families, our neighbors, students at nearby schools, and our friends around the world.
Comments