“Where the scholars can become workers and the workers become scholars”
Peter MAurin
Education
The garden will provide educational opportunities to those in the area who would like to learn more about gardening and growing your own food. The Joshua Group, a non-profit across the street, will be using the area to bring students for outdoor lessons about plants, insects, the ecosystem and much more.
Compost
“We think the flower is not the garbage and the garbage is not the flower. But if we leave the flower for ten days, it becomes a piece of garbage. And if we know how to compost the garbage, in a few months it can become a flower. The flower and garbage inter-are.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Compost is a great way to create a full food cycle. Each day, the scraps from the St. Francis Soup Kitchen are taken to the compost bins pictured above. Since the Soup Kitchen serves approximately 150 meals each day, there are lots of compostable scraps from the meal prep. The food scraps provide a source of nitrogen which is mixed with carbon sources like old newspapers, wood chips, or dry leaves. After a few months, this mixture creates rich compost which can be used in the garden beds which then can produce more food for the soup kitchen.
Food Desert
“For I was hungry and you gave me food”
A food desert is an urban area where it is difficult to find affordable and quality fresh food which can have devastating economic and health effects. For residents of Allison Hill without a vehicle, it can be difficult to find an affordable grocery store with locally produced fruits and vegetables. The Catholic Worker garden is an attempt to grow fresh food locally at no cost to neighbors. For more information on how gardens can transform food deserts please check out Ron Finley’s TED Talk.