FOOD AND SACRED PLACES (continued)
With the help of the neighborhood alderman, CCS secured
a grant from the Marx Foundation. On the church level,
the Metropolitan Chicago Synod also gave a grant for new
missions to help establish the garden. Volunteers included
neighbors, youth groups, scouts, businesses, and friends
of CCS. The church cleaned the lot, built twenty raised
beds, laid organic soil, and planted the seeds. By the end of
October 2009, garden volunteers had donated 576 pounds of
produce directly to the pantry.
From its humble beginnings, Three Brothers Garden has
grown dramatically. In those same twenty beds, the garden
yielded 725 pounds of produce in 2010, and just last year, it
donated 786 pounds of locally grown food to the food pantry.
Technological improvements were not far behind. While
volunteers had originally watered the garden themselves
with the church’s hose and sprinkler, by June 2011, CCS had
raised the necessary funds to install a full irrigation system.
Later that summer, CCS hired a garden coordinator to
oversee the entire project. Local Eagle Scouts provided other
important additions, including a compost bin, a garden
shed, a deck, and a pergola. Moving forward, the next phase
of the project will entail better signage and a few flowerbeds,
while also trying to involve pantry clients as much as
possible.
At Three Brothers Garden in the West Walker neighborhood of
Chicago, IL, families work to produce food for delivery to the
Irving Park Community Food Pantry. Photo courtesy of Three
Brothers Garden.
services. Two years later, IPLC bought a house on the plot
where the garden now lies. The church explored ideas for
the building, which sat on a long and narrow city lot, bu