Garden plots provide food, place for community, life lessons.

Garden plots on land owned by the General Board, located behind the General Offices in Elgin, Ill., produce food for the community, Brethren staff, and volunteers. They also provide an opportunity for gardeners to work together with friends and family. "It's fun," said Mary Beliveau, a Brethren Volunteer Service worker and assistant archivist for the board. "It's a lot of hard work but it's good to be together."

On a sunny afternoon in early fall, the area was a neighborhood gathering place as small groups of people chatted or waved to each other on their way to and from garden plots, and children rode four-wheelers and bicycles around the property. The land is a resource for the community, with individuals and groups renting the 122 plots for the low cost of $20 a season in a program that has been in place for at least 25 years. Most of the gardeners are repeat customers, said Maryse Manelli, the board's receptionist who is responsible for renting the plots. "A lot are renewed year after year," she said. "When people come in wanting plots, I have to put them on a waiting list."

Beliveau and three friends who work for the board--Beth Rhodes, co-coordinator of youth and young adult workcamps; Becky Ullom, director of Identity and Relations; and LeAnn Wine, director of Financial Operations--gardened a 40-by-40-foot plot together. This summer their crop included corn, sunflowers, green beans, peas, squash, tomatoes, and herbs. The harvest of beans was so plentiful the friends gave away bags of the fresh vegetable.

The plot worked by the Kingery family--Heather and Dennis, who directs the Church of the Brethren Credit Union, and sons Ethan and Jonas--also raised more than they could eat. The boys age four and two picked tomatoes and squash while their parents worried about weeds and cultivated the broccoli.

As all gardeners must, those who work the plots experience loss and disappointment along with the possibility of bumper crops. Produce regularly disappeared overnight. Pumpkins were especially hard to bring to harvest because they are popular with those who raid the plots, said gardeners.

James Miller, who worked nine plots with fellow gardener Dave Covington, said he planted extra for just that reason. He knows he shares his harvest with many people, those he invited to share it, and those he didn't. On the day he was interviewed at his plot he had brought along a friend, Everett Woods, who was hungry for some collard greens. Woods, who attends Living Gospel Church of God in Christ that meets at the General Offices, left with greens, jalapenos, cucumbers, and green peppers covering the floorboards of his car.

Among those using plots this year was the Elgin YWCA's Teen REACH and Southeast Asian Youth programs, which are attempting to create a community garden for youth and children on two plots provided free of charge by the board. The idea was for children at Elgin's Garfield Elementary School, a partner in the project, to work the garden, donate the produce and help serve the food at an Elgin soup kitchen, said Ann de Cruz, YWCA community service director. It seemed a perfect opportunity for children who are "usually on the receiving end" to give and see the fruit of their labors, she said.

The garden was a lesson in the "real world," however. When the weather turned hot, the children just didn't show up. "We lost the garden," de Cruz said. She is still convinced the basic idea for the program is a good one. "I want to do it one more time. The other thing that we must have is beyond-grade-school human beings who can follow through, or people who can volunteer." For more information about the YWCA project call 847-742-7930 or e-mail anndecruz153@hotmail.com.

Source: Newsline 10/01/2004
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