April 19, 2023

Eagle Scout candidate, Mason Heth, and members of his scout troop worked Saturday afternoon in The Lord's Acre of Fletcher constructing two picnic tables. Over the winter and into early spring, Mason raised the funds to purchase supplies needed for the tables. Boards were purchased and cut into lengths for the benches, tops, and supporting structure pieces. As the scouts under the supervision of Mason began the construction task, his leadership skills were evident. He circulated throughout the site encouraging each scout in their particular task, and modeling when needed. For example how to use an electric sander. When the project was complete, Mason's father had hot pizza ready for the hungry scouts. Please come by the garden and enjoy "time at the tables" and the garden.

When I share with you that 131 neighbors representing 454 individuals, and eleven new families shopped last week for groceries with us you will understand why we have moved to buying in bulk from several sources. Manna is our primary source of purchasing food. Items that aren't available from Manna, we are purchasing locally. As we have shared with you over the past couple of months, our neighbors who are facing food insecurity numbers have increased. Our weekly volunteers are finding it a challenge to pickup over 55 cases of food items to delivery weekly to the pantry. Sammy, from Fletcher Feed and Hardware, drove a huge truck to Wal-Mart to transport our monthly purchased food items to the pantry last Friday. We also purchase eggs and milk weekly from Sav-Mor.

City Bakery donated loaves of bread. Other donated items were from Bright Farms-lettuce, Ingles Panera, and Bimbos-bread, Wal-Mart and Big Lots, misc items, Flavor-First - tomatoes and peppers, and MilkCo-milk. Friday, our volunteers stocked the shelves with purchased items from MANNA and Sav-Mor (canned goods, milk, and eggs). Other produce this week included squash, cabbage, zucchini, green beans, jalapenos, and cucumbers

Our Rummage and Plant Sale benefitting the Food Pantry is Saturday, April 29, 8 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

On behalf of the executive committee, thank you to our volunteers and our area churches, civic groups, local merchants, and families for all you do to feed our community helping to reduce food insecurity. We thank you for your food and monetary donations. We are able to feed our neighbors 3 and 1/2 days of food or 11 meals.

News from The Lord’s Acre, Fletcher

Work in the Garden Thursday at 4pm

Enjoy the warm evening weather Thursday at 4pm, plant beets in the new hoop house beds, and hoe rows to prepare them for planting squash.

We will NOT meet Saturday morning in the garden. Instead, we will welcome twenty middle schoolers from the Faith Alive weekend at Lutheridge who want a service experience.

Hoophouse Raised Beds Completed!

Thanks to workers from Calvary Episcopal, Nativity Lutheran, and Fletcher UMC, we built 2,000 sq ft. of raised beds in the new hoop house on Saturday. Soon we’ll plant tomatoes, peppers, and beets in the beds. You’ll hear soon about details of the Tuesday, May 16 hoop house dedication.

LAF Bees On the Way

Two hives of bees will be installed near the LAF garden Friday around 2:30 to 3:00 p.m. Come by. It’s fun to watch and the bees are not looking for trouble during the process; it’s safe to view from a short distance.

The bees, both honeybees and native bees, pollinate the garden and, maybe next year, provide some delicious honey.