Why a Community Garden?
Environment
We believe God calls us to take care of His creation, so we are dedicated to organic practices that conserve and restore the natural resources around us. We believe that growing food locally and organically is not only beneficial to those eating the food, but also to the greater community of plants, soil, water, and non-human animals that surround us.
Faith
Our faith is the inspiration for this entire ministry. Yes, of course you don’t have to be Christian to grow and give produce, but God’s love is the example and motivation for our mission to love our community (both human and non-human). By providing food for those who need it, we are given the opportunity to share our knowledge and love of the ultimate sustainer, our Lord and Savior.
Community
It is a joy donating 100% of our produce to people in need throughout central Kitsap via our partners at Kitsap Community Resources. It is also a join growing all this food with our amazing team of volunteers. We are a garden community that loves to serve the Kitsap community!
Every day, taking our sustenance from the earth and from the bodies of other animals, we enter deeply into the mystery of creation. Eating is practical theology, or it should be; daily it gives us the opportunity to honor God with our bodies. Our never-failing hunger is a steady reminder to acknowledge God as the Giver of every good gift.
Ellen Davis
The question that must be addressed is not how to care for the planet, but how to care for each of the planet’s millions of human and natural neighborhoods, each of its millions of small pieces and parcels of land, each one of which is in some precious way different from all the others.
Wendell Berry
At it’s best, eating is a sharing and welcoming movement that makes room for others… We don’t really understand food until we perceive, receive, and taste it in terms of its origin and end in God as the one who provides for, communes with, and ultimately reconciles creation. Food is God’s love made nutritious and delicious, given for the good of each other. The mundane act of eating is thus a daily invitation to move responsibly and gratefully within this given life. It is a summons to commune with the divine Life that is presupposed and made manifest in every bite.
Norman Wirzba
Volunteer
We have decided to schedule our garden work days every week on Monday mornings, from 9:00am to noon, and on Thursday afternoons, from 3:30-5:30pm. We will be delivering what we harvest on Tuesday mornings and Friday mornings at 8:30am. See the calendar below for our garden work days and produce drop off days.
We are going to try sign ups for the work days, which might help you to plan it into your schedule and will allow you to receive emails reminding you of the days you signed up. However, you don’t need to have signed up in order to come, if you decide at the last minute you want to swing by and pull some weeds with us!
Deliver Food
We have been asked to deliver the produce at 8:30am on Tuesdays and Fridays. The drop off location is about a 7-minute drive from the church. Deliveries involve carrying the produce in boxes from the church kitchen to your car and then dropping them off at Kitsap Community Resources’s office. A key to the church is not required.
Garden Partners
We are thrilled to be able to work alongside Kitsap Community Resources (KCR) and their Home Visiting program to provide fresh produce to families within our community. KCR has been doing amazing work in our community for many years, and we look forward to helping them provide some locally grown sustenance to our neighbors in Kitsap.
We are also very grateful to the Kitsap Conservation District for passing along some gardening knowledge, some fresh compost, and for accepting our application to have rain gardens and cisterns installed at the church. These rain gardens and cisterns will help our church reduce the amount of pollutants entering our watershed, which is especially important for our church as the Barker Creek passes along the east side of our property. The cisterns will also help us water our garden as we collect and use rainwater from our roof.
We are also thankful for numerous other Kitsap businesses and community members who have donated to this garden ministry. It is so fun to see our community rally together to care for each other.