Richfield
CURRENT
May 26, 2011 • V41.21
minnlocal.com
RHS tennis splits at sections. Page 28A
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In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
Sowing seeds of charity, community
Richfield Fourth of July in need of funding
Richfield-based church utilizes grant money to build garden, stock food shelf
Planners look to grants, contests to fund the five-day celebration
BY BILLIE JO RASSAT • SUN NEWSPAPERS
BY BILLIE JO RASSAT SUN NEWSPAPERS
Giggles from the new gardens flow through Bethany Covenant Church as the students from the Augsburg Park Montessori School water the beds. Bethany Covenant received $2,000 from the Statewide Health Improvement Program, SHIP, grant as a start-up fund to build a community garden. The church community has built five raised-bed gardens, a number of potted beds and cultivated landscape that will hold everything from tomatoes to sweet corn. “We sent home surveys for the students and their families to tell us what they want to grow,” Augsburg Park Montessori School owner Sinead Carolan said. The students at the Montessori school have been growing seedlings of tomatoes and other vegetables as part of their curriculum, according to Carolan. Other vegetables planted in the commu-
When harvesting can begin, the school and its families, along with the church’s parishioners, will be allowed to come and harvest when they want. On Sundays, the church will offer the produce to its parishioners and the surrounding community. They will then take what is left to the local Volunteer’s
With the Forth of July quickly approaching, the Richfield Forth of July Committee is nervous about funding. “There is some money but not enough,” Committee Chair and Candidate Chair for the Richfield Ambassador Committee Jodi Olson said. The common misconception of the celebration is that it is funded by the city, when in fact, the committee is charged with raising funds for the approximately $100,000 price tag for the five-day event, according to Olson. In order to raise the funds the committee has gone seeking
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Augsburg Park Montessori School student Leif Kutzer waters a raised bed of vegetables that are part of the new community gardens at Bethany Covenant Church in Richfield. (Photo by Billie Jo Rassat • Sun Newspapers) nity garden are green beans, peas, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins and lettuce. “We will be donating 100 percent of the produce to the community,” parish member Megan Ritchie said. Part of the requirements of the SHIP grant the community garden must give at least 25 percent of the grown product back to the community, according to Ritchie.
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