Seven parishes and three Catholic non-profit ministries have received $1,000 CRS Rice Bowl Mini-Grants from Catholic Charities to assist those in need.
Three of those grants are helping fund community gardens at St. Benedict the Moor Church in Winston-Salem, St. Eugene Church in Asheville, and Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury.
These grant funds come from the portion of the Lenten CRS Rice Bowl Collection that remains in the Diocese of Charlotte to address poverty and hunger alleviation projects at the local level.
“Thanks to a CRS Rice Bowl Grant, we at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church will expand our community garden by more than 50 percent,” said project coordinator Lorraine Mortis. “This expansion will provide members of our parish with even more opportunities to serve the needs of those in our immediate neighborhood, which includes the clients of the Winston-Salem Office of Catholic Charities.”
Pictured: The Friendship Garden/Jardín de la Amistad! Development Team of St. Eugene Church includes (back row, from left) James Blocker, Connie Mitchell, Glenn Glass, Maddie Crow and Sam Packard; (middle row) Cynthia Gibbs, JoAnne Gance, Emmily Zavala, Mikayla Zopfi, Vicki Ransom, Andrea Genna, Veronica Allen and Bill Maloney; and (front row) Citlalli Zavala, Gerrie Zimmer and Nancy Acopine. (Photos provided by Cynthia Gibbs)
Mortis entrusts the success of the parish’s project to divine assistance, offering the following scriptural passage as inspiration for the project: “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes it grow.” (1 Cor 3:7)
Sacred Heart Church is using its Rice Bowl Grant, the second for the parish, to add a Pollinator Garden adjacent to its Lord’s Bounty Community Garden.
“We are actively trying to improve the amount of our harvest that we can provide to our parish and community in need,” said Gretchen McKivergan. “The start of the pollinator garden will attract beneficial butterflies and insects that will help to pollinate the garden to improve that harvest.”
The pollinator garden will help with butterfly conservation as well as benefit different agencies in Rowan County and the parish’s own food pantry, McKivergan added.
The CRS Rice Bowl Mini-Grant awarded to the Friendship Garden/Jardín de la Amistad! of St. Eugene Church will provide healthy, supplemental food to those in need in the Asheville area this year.
“The project has transformed an abandoned lot (where once the former rectory and offices existed) into a source of food for the poor of our parish and a source of beauty and pride for all St. Eugene parishioners,” said Cynthia Gibbs, project team member and co-chair. “The community garden gives St. Eugene Anglos and Hispanics the opportunity to work side by side and get to know, help and understand each other better.
“We hope that our Garden/Jardín will provide a peaceful respite for those who need it – a place to pray, meditate and reflect on God’s blessings…a place to feel valued,” Gibbs said. “We are one family and we hope this Jardín/Garden will reflect that.”
Friendship Garden Volunteers Sam Packard, Veronica Allen and Maddie Crow fill up the raised garden beds with soil.With the CRS mini-grant, funds have enabled a watering system and various materials and soil for the raised garden beds. Project tasks, which began in October with volunteer recruitment, include: clearing the land, tilling the soil, building raised bed boxes, transplanting plants and sowing vegetable and flower seeds, and building arbors, picnic tables and a walking path. Even those without green thumbs assist by providing snacks, creating signs and saying prayers. The parish project also includes gardeners from nearby Asheville Catholic School and UNC-Asheville’s Campus Ministry.
Soon, early spring crops will be planted. This spring, the parish’s Knights of Columbus council will build an 8-foot-by-12-foot garden storage unit purchased by an anonymous donor. In her email updates on the project, Gibbs noted, “I am so excited and wanted to share the good news with you all. We are so blessed.”
— Joseph Purello, Special to the Catholic News Herald
Joseph Purello is director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s Office of Social Concerns and Advocacy and the diocesan director for CRS.