I garden to grow my community

I’m not much of a gardener, but in 2020, I planted a heck of a garden because I wanted to share some with my community. I knew that pandemic shortages combined with lost wages pushed many families into hunger.

I gave bunches of lettuce and peppers to a friend who was raising her twin 4-year-old grandsons. I took bags full of donations to the food bank, where they set them out for anyone to take if they wanted.

You probably know that food prices have seen some of the worst inflation out of all our consumer prices.

And my friend is still raising her twin grandsons. I know there are a lot more people here who will struggle with food all summer.

So I’m planning to add more to my garden again this year so I can share. I even went to an extension gardening class and community garden tour. (I have a lot to learn.)

Raised beds, old water tanks and tires converted to make a community garden behind an apartment building. It's late winter, so nothing is growing yet. — It’s late winter *nearly spring,* so nothing is growing yet in the Alva, Oklahoma, community garden. Photo by Becky McCray.

That’s why Deb and I decided to bring back our Food Builds Community topic from early 2021. It’s full of practical steps you can take to get more food to people who need it.

It’s a video you can share in your community, and we made an audio version so you can download and listen like a podcast.

You don’t have to garden. There’s plenty more steps you can take.

If you have a story or food project to share, Deb and I would love to hear about it.

Keep shaping a better future for your community,

Becky

PS – This is why we don’t plan our topics out a full year at a time. We know things change fast.