Congregation's efforts reap harvest of plenty

It's rather unusual these days to see a 1948 Ford tractor plowing a field in the heart of Mount Prospect.

If you take a stroll past the South Church Community Baptist site in Mount Prospect, though, you'll see the result of just such a machine's labor: a large flourishing vegetable garden.

Pastor Jack Skiles hopped aboard his father's old 1948 farm tractor this spring and transformed part of the church's side yard into a suburban-style field for his flock.

So far, so good. Everything they planted is growing and they've already taken 28 bags of fresh vegetables to a local food pantry.

But it's taken a lot of work by a lot of congregation members to move the plot from sod to something that's growing "faster than anything I've ever planted in my life," church member Judy Grimes said.

The small church congregation decided over the winter that a group garden to benefit Plant a Row for the Hungry was viable and began publicizing their plans in the weekly bulletin. As soon as Pastor Skiles was finished tilling the soil with his beloved tractor, crews started hauling horse manure from a stable in Wheeling to fertilize the long-dormant soil.

For three long weekends, they hauled 20 pickup truck-loads of the natural fertilizer back to the church property to work into the garden-in-waiting, Grimes said. Once the soil was prepared, crews planted a wealth of seeds or plants: potatoes, onions, carrots, peas, green beans, peppers, strawberries, herbs, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes.

Because the church is adjacent to Lions Park, they get a lot of passers-by stopping and asking questions, or just watching as the garden grows.

"They just stand there … and enjoy," Skiles said.

For years the church has served as a Public Action to Deliver Shelter site, but that program only runs from fall to spring. In summer, the program is suspended.

Grimes for several years had donated her own garden extras to various food pantries through Plant a Row for the Hungry, but she thought a bigger garden would be a great way to bridge the PADS-free summer.

"It was just a natural extension of what we do," she said.

Her enthusiasm was contagious.

"There are people who just wander in here any evening," Skiles said. And they do whatever needs to be done in the 35-by-45-foot garden: weeding, harvesting, cutting back rambunctious squash plants. Whatever.

"I've got no weeds," Skiles, a former Indiana farm boy, says incredulously.

And it's not just folks from the park who walk by to catch a glance.

"Somebody from the church just pulls up out of the blue to see how it's going," Grimes said.