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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Community gardens

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 12, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Kiera Malone and Bryan Perkins, sixth-graders at St. Michael the Archangel School in Monroe, tend to some flowers in the garden they helped start last school year.

Metro area — Catholic parishes and schools are integral in helping people grow their relationships with the Lord. Nowadays, they're growing something else — vegetables.

"We have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, green beans, four kinds of squash," says John Rowan, a St. Vincent de Paul volunteer describing just some of the fruits in the garden on the property of Our Lady of the Woods Church in Woodhaven. "We feel we're giving our people coming to us for help something more than what you can get with canned goods."

Several parishes, schools and other institutions in metro Detroit have established gardens on their campuses, which are used to stock soup kitchens and community food pantries, given to the needy through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, or sold to parishioners for parish fundraising. Volunteer gardeners across the archdiocese say the gardens help with charity as well as community building, and even education.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Nathan Kubik, a seventh-grader at St. Michael the Archangel School in Monroe, shows off a pepper picked from a garden the students share with Marian Place senior center. Parishes, schools and other Catholic institutions have taken to gardening as a way to feed the poor, fundraise and build communities.

In Monroe, students at St. Michael the Archangel School initiated a garden project on the grounds of the adjacent Marian Place senior home. The students started a garden at the end of last school year, and Marian Place residents cared for it during the summer.

"It was fun," said Nathan Kubik, 12, a seventh-grader at St. Michael. "They usually don't get to get out a lot, so we gave them a chance to come out here and do stuff."

Nathan and his schoolmates also were able to learn a lot about plant life through the garden project.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Marian Place resident Pat Couture accepts some carrots from St. Michael seventh-graders Nathan Kubikp and Katie Knapp.

"My project was the green peppers," said Kiera Malone, 11, a sixth-grader. "I learned that they really don't need as much water as other plants do, but they do need some water. And it was a pleasure to do with my friend. It's fun."

And since the seniors were able to use the vegetables, teacher Deborah Simms, who organized the project, said it also was a lesson in Christian service.

"The intent was that the kids learn something about life science, and that they learned about giving without getting anything back," Simms said.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Marian Place residents stand in a garden started by students at St. Michael the Archangel School in Monroe. From left: Residents Pat Couture, Rita LaPointe and Walter Behnke, and students Bryan Perkins, Katie Knapp, Nathan Kubik and Kiera Malone.

Marian Place resident Pat Couture says she and her friends have enjoyed the produce.

"It's nice to have a garden," Couture says. "It's a good idea. Maybe next year we'll have another one."

At Our Lady Queen of All Saints Parish in Fraser, the parish last year got creative with vegetables in a couple different ways. Sr. Nancy Zajac, OP, asked parishioners to bring in their leftover produce from their gardens at home to sell at church for fundraisers — now informally known as "Sr. Nancy's Mini Mart." The mini mart, says pastor Fr. Ronald Babich, has "zucchini by the ton" and "tomatoes up the kazoo."

On another note, the parish youth group started a vegetable garden near the church parking lot, and are even having a pumpkin-growing contest — which also will raise funds for the parish.

The green thumbs are helping the parish to survive, Fr. Babich says.

"We've gotten to the point where the economy is now, they realize that they have to fundraise," he says. "But they're having fun with it, and the kids are raising some money."

It also helps feed a hungry priest from time to time, he adds with a chuckle.

"Our vestibule is kind of busy lately," Fr. Babich says. "I even grabbed a bunch of leftover tomatoes myself and made two big vats of tomato sauce."

At some Catholic institutions, vegetable gardens have been around a long time. Urban gardens at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen on the city's east side, for example, have been operational for years. Gesu Elementary School in Detroit also keeps an urban garden on its premises.

In Berkley, Our Lady of La Salette parishioner John Clare recalls helping start the parish garden back in 2001.

"There's a big, enclosed playground area that wasn't being used too much," he said. "When we first started, we wanted to get the kids involved."

It caught on with several parishioners — some of whom even give donations to the church to grow their own vegetables in the garden. The fruits of the parish's efforts have been donated to the charity Forgotten Harvest, and more recently have been donated to a local food pantry.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic John Clare, a parishioner at Our Lady of La Salette Parish in Berkley, helped start the parish garden in 2001. Each year, it yields a ton of food for the needy and for parishioners.

"We harvest on Sunday nights, and they'll pick it up on Monday morning," Clare says. "We average about a ton of food per year."

Clare even has helpers from the Michigan Master Gardener Volunteer Program help grow the garden, as well as parishioners. Most gardens across the archdiocese have a number of people pitching in. Rowan of Our Lady of the Woods says he has a unique perspective on how important the fruits of such gardens are.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic John Clare shows off a ripened tomato from Our Lady of La Salette Parish's garden.

"It's one of my basic ministries, because I myself was homeless, and I know what it is to be hungry and to be poor," says Rowan, 62. "We do this at the command of our Lord Jesus, to feed those who are hungry and who are poor. It makes us feel that we are doing God's work."

And while the gardeners themselves prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and water the gardens, he adds that — as in life — the Lord is the one to bring forth the harvest.

"We believe we are totally in God's garden," says Rowan. "I believe I can plant the seed, I can watch it grow and harvest it, but our Lord is the God who does what makes everything come. Even when it doesn't rain, he still brings food to our tables to feed the poor."