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This vegetable garden feeds those in need twice

Ray Peterson has a small vegetable garden behind his Carol Stream home. Behind his church - Our Savior Lutheran Church (www.oursavior.com), 1244 W. Army Trail, Carol Stream - he has a 5,000 square foot vegetable garden.

"It's an eighth of an acre," said Peterson. "For the past five years we've been growing carrots, peas, onions, potatoes, lettuce, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers."

Two dozen church members and two dozen Troop 98 Boy Scouts help till, plant, and harvest the crops. Last year, the garden reaped 1,558 pounds of vegetables. This year, they're hoping for a bumper crop.

What do they do with the vegetables?

"We donate half to the Carol Stream location of the Neighborhood Food Pantries (http://www.neighborhoodfp.org/ (formerly Feeding NW DuPage; Northwest DuPage Walk-in Ministry) and the other half to the Neighborhood Food Pantry at Resurrection Catholic Church in Wayne (http://resurrectioncc.com/minestries-and-programs/2012-09-13-16-42-23/neighborhood-food-pantry.html).

For daily watering and caring of the garden, they hire a gardener. "For the past three years, we've hired someone from PADS (www.dupagepads.org) Public Action to Deliver Shelter) to weed, water and care for the vegetables," said Peterson. "It's a 20 hour a week job."

Feeding the homeless is a mainstay at Our Savior. Every Wednesday, the church doors are open as an overnight PADS location. Persons who qualify can grow their own vegetables in a 4' x 8' section of the Our Savior garden.

"We're dedicated to providing for the homeless and hungry of DuPage," said Our Savior Pastor Andrew Koschmann. "Growing vegetables is a tangible form of our dedication."

Community volunteers are invited to help till and plant the Our Savior garden on April 23 and on May 14. For more information, contact ray-pete@att.net

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Our Savior Lutheran Church of Carol Stream belongs to the St. Louis-headquartered Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). The denomination has more than 2.3 million members in more than 6,100 congregations nationwide. LCMS operates the largest Protestant parochial school system in America.

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