Blessing Health System issued the following announcement on Jan. 16.
Blessing Health System contributed 264 pounds of produce to people in need during the 2018 growing season.
The vegetables were grown in the Community Garden at Ninth and Elm Streets, plus a garden on the grounds of the Blessing Early Learning Center. The food was donated to Horizons and the Salvation Army.
The Community Garden was created by the Quincy Rotary Club, Lowe’s and Blessing Health System and is maintained by more than 40 volunteers, including Blessing employees. The Early Learning Center garden is maintained by schoolage children who attend the site.
The 264-pound total included:
100 pounds of tomatoes
48 pounds of peppers
46 pounds of lettuce and greens
35 pounds of zucchini
21 pounds of cucumbers
14 pounds of onions
Sara Martin, a nurse practitioner with Blessing Physician Services, manages the Community Garden and organizes the volunteers for Blessing. She says if a person were to purchase these quantities of vegetables, the cost would be $541.
“For our first full-growing season, that was great production,” Martin said.
The Community Garden consists of 18 threefoot-by-three-foot growing boxes where produce is planted. Martin is requesting of Blessing leaders and the Rotary Club of Quincy to add nine more growing boxes for the 2019 growing season in order to boost production.
Another plan to boost production and maximize the space available in the growing boxes will be to add more fencing to each box, allowing certain vegetables that can grow up fencing to do that, thus leaving the base of the box available to grow other items.
In 2019, the Blessing Diabetes Center plans to be involved in distribution of the Community Garden produce and provide education to patients receiving the produce through recipes for them to use. There also is a plan to incorporate the produce into the Diabetes Center’s monthly cooking classes.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Blessing Health System
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