Church grows food for needy families' shelves
Everything's coming up tomatoes at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Mundelein.
There are little ones, big ones, plums, cherries, heirlooms, Big Boys, champions and Early Girls. You name it, somebody's growing it.
"I never cease to be amazed that you put seeds in the ground and you get plants," resident supervising gardener Tana Hamm jokes.
There are plants in abundance at the church, where the congregation this year decided to take on a little farm project in the name of making the world a better place.
Sixteen families are cultivating 2,400 square feet of garden space - all for the benefit of area food pantries. There's one in particular that they're focusing on: COOL Food Pantry in Waukegan, one of the drop-off sites for the Daily Herald's Giving Garden program.
By early August, they'd already gathered several hundred pounds of vegetables.
In a creative twist, though, the church is helping the food pantry with its other needs, too.
Every Sunday, gardeners bring a small portion of their harvest into the church lobby next to a jar asking for voluntary donations. The first Sunday they attempted the plan, they offered some zucchini and collected $127.
Hamm said she still was left with zucchini, much to her amused chagrin!
"There was maybe $25 worth of produce there," she said of the overwhelming response. "I was flabbergasted."
Even better, some folks who bought the zucchini the first week brought it back the second week to resell for the pantry - in an altered state. They made zucchini bread as well as zucchini cranberry muffins, which came with an attached recipe, as well.
It didn't take long for them to learn about "zucchini: the gift that keeps on giving."
Altogether, their efforts have netted $750, including a $500 donation from one individual, Pastor Mark Selbo said.
The entire project got off the ground last year after Sue Markgraf presented the suggestion. Other folks took the idea and ran with it. Someone brought in a backhoe, another person acquired mushroom compost to enhance the virgin soil.
Once the ground was ready, families - a list of recommended vegetables in hand - signed up to plant one of the 16 10-by-15 plots.
"Part of the beauty is that I haven't done a whole lot: it's been lay leaders," Selbo said. "I get to be the cheerleader."
Well, that and be the presiding pastor at the harvest blessing, where the first fruits of the garden were presented and the efforts of the entire team were blessed for the rest of the summer. That happened in the front of the church for everyone to see and enjoy.