Community garden to feed poor in works in eastern Kentucky

RUSSELL, Ky. (AP) - A church and a hospital have joined forces in eastern Kentucky to help feed the poor with a 1,000-acre community garden.

The Independent (https://bit.ly/1DpqpxM) reports Matthew Whitt began plowing the earth last week behind Plaza Nazarene Church in Russell.

“Well, there’s no turning back now,” said Paula Sergent, who is associate pastor of the church and spearheaded the initiative. She says food from the “Grow 2 Feed” project will go to help people who can’t afford to feed themselves.

The church plans to give away all the food, mostly by donating it to a couple of local food pantries, which often could use more fresh produce. Plans call for planting cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, corn, green beans and squash. Other vegetables and some fruit may be added later.

“We want to be a church that is a blessing to the community,” said Rev. Kevin Campbell, the church’s pastor. “We plan to give it all away, every bit of it.”

Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital helped the church get a grant to fund the endeavor. In addition, Diva Justice, the hospital’s director of healthy community initiatives, said staff members there will almost certainly help with planting, cultivating and harvesting.

Other churches in the area have also expressed an interest in helping. Whitt, who belongs to a Baptist church in the Cannonsburg area, said he decided to help after seeing a post about it on Facebook.

Campbell said the field originally was a part of a farm, though recently it has been used for softball games.

“The beauty of it is the land was farmland, so now it’s going full circle,” Campbell said.

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Information from: The Independent, https://www.dailyindependent.com