Community Gardening – All Are Welcome!
Spring means it’s time to think about gardening! The Community Garden at St. Rita will begin its ninth season and the Garden at St. Casimir will be starting its fourth season. Last season we provided over 2,126 pounds of organically grown produce for the Riverwest Food Pantry (1,245 pounds from the St. Rita garden and over 881 pounds from the St. Casimir garden)! And this year we are adding a third location to our gardens – the Victory Gardens Urban Farm will be letting us use some of their farm at the former Concordia Gardens. But more than produce – we shared our gifts of friendship and knowledge with each other and have seen our communities grow.
Are you interested in this rewarding service to our community? We need regular garden volunteers to plan, plant, water, weed, and harvest the vegetables and fruit. There is no need to have gardening skills, we have some very knowledgeable volunteers, who are willing to teach you. We usually have organized workdays on Fridays and Saturdays during the summer months, but you can work whenever you like. Garden Prep Day for the St. Rita garden is Saturday, May 20 starting at 9:00 am. The Prep Day for the St. Casimir garden is TBD. Work continues weekly throughout the growing season. If you are not able to help in person you can donate garden items or money to purchase these items.
We are pursuing this initiative, recognizing that community gardening improves people’s quality of life by:
- providing a catalyst for parish, neighborhood and community development
- stimulating social interaction
- encouraging self-reliance
- beautifying neighborhoods
- producing nutritious food
- reducing family food budgets
- conserving resources
- providing for those who are in need of fresh food
- creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education
Above all, we are creating an opportunity to get involved in a hands-on way to care for God’s creation.
All members of parishes and the community are welcome. Please contact Julie Trafton, Community Garden coordinator, at atrafton@wi.rr.com, or Andrew Musgrave, Director of Social Justice Ministries and Outreach, at 271-6577 for further information.
