September 20, 2023
Last Thursday night two of our garden volunteer families and other volunteers filled Doug's truck full of freshly harvested produce for distribution on Saturday. Oh...if you could have seen the delight in the neighbors’ eyes as they filled their carts with collards, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Because of the help of volunteers that we have in our community, our garden has produced 50% more produce this year. After the abundant amount of produce gathered last week, it was a blessing that the Day of Caring at Christ School was last Wednesday. Almost two dozen students worked in the garden weeding and preparing the beds for our winter plantings. The students also spent time planting pansies in front of the Pantry and helped shelve 500 pounds of food purchased from Sav-Mor. It was like icing on the cake. We also had a small group of Christ School students volunteering in the Pantry on Saturday morning.
During the month of September, St. James Episcopal Church is holding a Food Drive for the Pantry. We picked up several hundred pounds of food from them on Thursday and distributed it to the neighbors on Saturday. We held a Hunger Walk on Saturday after the Pantry closed in coordination with the Henderson County Hunger Coalition. On Sunday afternoon, a Hunger Walk was held at Arden Woods Retirement Community, coordinated by Pat Jollie and Carol Romine. Due to inclement weather at the time of the walk, we proceeded to the "rec room" and to the tune of "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain," we walked some laps around the room.
We welcomed 129 families representing 473 individuals. Twelve new families had the opportunity to shop with a volunteer and select from the donations received this week.
We had lots of donations this week: Bimbos and City Bakery filled our bread racks with bread and bakery items. Bright Farms donated 20 cases of salad kits. Other donors include: LAF - tomatoes, beans, and peppers; Rotary Club- tomatoes; Flavor-First-tomatoes and peppers; Wal-Mart and Big Lots - miscellaneous items and food; Project Dignity - feminine products; Humane Society - dog/cat food; and MilkCo - milk. Nativity Lutheran, Fletcher Methodist, Calvary Episcopal, and the Tabernacle of Praise Churches and other anonymous donors contributed their time, food, and misc. items during the week.
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 and appreciate your food and monetary donations.
From The Lord’s Acre, Fletcher:
No work this week in the garden
We’ll take a break from weekly our weekly work sessions in the garden this week (9/21).
By next Thursday, collards and peppers will need harvesting, and beets will need thinning, along with some weeding in the collard beds. There will be much to do in the garden this fall as beets in the field need thinning, and we transition in the hoop house from summer crops to winter crops like lettuce and spinach. See you next week!
