Grow Your Own Food in Mt. Morris
A community garden such as this one is in the works for Mt. Morris
By Amanda Lonsberry, The Livingston County News
April 7, 2010
MOUNT MORRIS, NY —A vacant lot in Mount Morris is about to have something in common with the White House’s South lawn: A community garden.
In what has the potential to both help provide fresh produce to the local food pantry and teach people from all backgrounds a bit about growing their own food, Catholic Charities of Livingston County will break ground in the coming weeks on the 50×50-foot State Street garden plot.
There will be no Michelle Obama out planting beans, cucumbers and tomatoes in the lot between Hilltop Industries and McDonalds, but organizers are hoping the garden will draw everyone from master gardener volunteers to apartment dwellers with no space for a garden of their own.
“Community gardens serve many functions,” said Molly Kerker, a Catholic Charities AmeriCorps volunteer planning the garden “They have been shown to strengthen community bonds, decrease crime, beautify neighborhoods, develop food security and improve physical and psychological health. Although the project really centers around food, I think it would be really great if the garden works to bring the community together.”
Kerker would like to see the ground broken on the land in the next two weeks and begin planting by the end of the April. However, she has yet to find anyone with a tractor and plow willing to till the land. Financial donations as well as donations of ground tilling, hoses, tools and a storage shed are still needed to help the community garden get up and running. Also, experienced garden volunteers are encouraged to come to help novice gardeners learn to work the land.
Kerker is no stranger to community gardens. A 2009 graduate of SUNY Geneseo, the Amherst native helped start an on-campus garden at SUNY Geneseo in 2007. The garden is entering its third year of providing students with seasonal, fresh vegetables. However, the garden serves a population for whom the garden is more a hobby than a necessity, Kerker said.
And that isn’t the case in Mount Morris.
Lacking a grocery store, Kerker, calls Mount Morris a “fresh food desert,” a place with limited availability to fresh produce to those without easy access to area supermarkets.
The Mount Morris Food Pantry does not have a steady supply of fresh produce and according to a one-month Catholic Charities survey of food pantry customers, fewer than 25 percent of those surveyed reported eating the recommended five servings of fruits or vegetables a day. The expense of healthy food, lack of transportation to the supermarket, and a lack of preparation/cooking knowledge topped the lack of healthy eating explanations.
“The Community Crops garden will help alleviate these burdens of price, proximity, and unfamiliarity,” Kerker said. “This is about building our own community and food justice, in other words, ensuring that everybody, regardless of income level, race, background or political affiliation has access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food and that that food is grown in a just way locally.”
The garden will provide a mixture of individual and communal garden plots to interested area residents, Kerker said. She is working to set up a garden board comprised of local volunteers, Arc and Catholic Charities personnel who will oversee the garden and make decisions about everything from working hours to food distribution.
A recent meeting of folks interested in the garden brought out experienced gardeners, mothers who want their children to experience gardening without the full-time garden responsibility, volunteers eager to help, and people who have no space at home to grow their own food.
Kerker has rounded up county-wide donations for the project: A Mount Morris farmer is donating all the seeds and seedlings to the project. Geneseo Lumber donated wood for four raised garden beds.
Seven Spirits Farms from Dansville is donating manure to fertilize the ground. Oak Hill Farm Bed and Breakfast in Nunda donated $100 for supplies. And in case the sky fails to provide enough rain, McDonalds, which sits adjacent to the garden, will provide water free of charge.
Kerker is also hoping to provide classes on different ways to prepare vegetables, and volunteers have offered to teach classes on food preservation to help gardeners preserve the summer’s bounty beyond the growing season.
The garden is a project of Help*Works Community Resource, an emergency assistance program of Catholic Charities of Livingston County.
For more information on the Community Crops Initiative in Mount Morris, call Molly Kerker at 658-4466 ext. 24 or visit www.communitycrops.blogspot.com.