6 minute read
Church grows veggies for East Buffalo ...Michael J. Billoni
Miracle mission
Church grows vegetables for East Buffalo
BY MICHAEL J. BILLONI
Sister Karen Hargrove tends the Miracle Mission’s Feed My Flock Community Garden.
Photo courtesy of Miracle Mission
As chair of the Health & Wellness Ministry at East Buffalo’s Miracle Mission Full Gospel Church on Sycamore Street, Sister Karen Hargrove knows the fresh produce food apartheid that exists in that community. She has always wanted to address it by creating a community garden on vacant land next to the church but her full-time job at the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority limited the time she could devote to it starting—let alone maintaining—it.
When Pastor and board of directors’ chair Dr. James A. Lewis III asked Hargrove and a couple volunteers to revisit the garden idea late in spring 2021, they went to work building four raised beds, purchasing topsoil and seedlings, and obtaining permission from the Fire Department to use a hydrant for daily waterings. The project—the Feed My Flock Community Garden— began late in the growing season. By early fall, a harvest of zucchinis, greens, and other items flourished, and Hargrove had achieved her goal: she was a community gardener in East Buffalo, providing fresh veggies to neighbors and parishioners.
“Karen Hargrove is a person who sincerely believes she exists to ‘love and serve people’ and her Miracle Mission’s Feed My Flock Community Garden gives her that opportunity to be of service to our community,” Pastor Lewis says. “This garden is an extension of my Evangelism and Health Ministry,” says Hargrove, who also serves as board treasurer. “My vision for the garden is to provide fresh food through a food pantry to the community, develop cooking classes to show the different ways to prepare the food from the garden, and to teach our youth about all aspects of gardening. “This year, the garden has six raised beds, and we are growing cucumbers, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, eggplant, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beets, watermelons, and herbs,” she continues. “Prayerfully, we can make a difference by being a source for food here. This opportunity to create our Feed My Flock Community Garden has provided me with much peace. As I learn more about gardening, I want to share that knowledge with our youth and others in the community so we may expand our gardens here and see more developed through the community. We live in an everchanging world where inflation is up, the cost food is up, so creating a community garden can contribution to our survival and our health.” Earlier this year, Hargrove’s application was approved for a Seeding East Buffalo Fellowship, which included a series of courses on urban farming presented from a team assembled by Allison DeHonney, founder of Urban Fruits & Veggies of Buffalo. And last fall, she applied and was accepted as a member of Grassroots Gardens of Western New York, an independent 501c3 organization of determined activists who educate and lead committed neighborhood gardeners. Today’s organization resulted from the merger of two sister organizations: Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo and Greenprint Niagara.
Grassroots Gardens of Western New York operates as both an urban land trust and facilitator of leased land. With over 100 community and school gardens now in its network, it secures land in three different ways on behalf of the community:
It holds master leases with the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls to connect community members to vacant land.
It works with Buffalo and Niagara Falls City School Districts to create school gardens on their properties or nearby lots.
Because of increased risk of losing community green spaces to Buffalo-Niagara’s redevelopment, the organization became a land trust in 2016-2017. With the purchase of its first two gardens and more in the works, it is determined to conserve many long-standing community gardens.
Nearly 2,000 gardeners from nearly thirty cultural backgrounds participate in its network, collectively growing over 35,000 pounds of fresh, free produce per year. As a stewardship organization, its goal is to offset the cost of soil, lumber, seeds, and seedlings for its member gardens. It also offers free workshops throughout the year so anyone who wants to learn to grow can do so.
“Those experiences taught me so much and have provided so many more resources for our gardens this year and beyond,” an excited Hargrove says. She has since retired from NFTA, and her summer mission is the garden and planning for its expansion next year.” FY
Michael J. Billoni is a storyteller and publisher
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