Spring is coming! How do we know this? The days are becoming longer, the seed catalogs are arriving in our mailboxes, and we’re all getting really bored with snow and cold weather.
Once again in 2020, the diocesan Social Justice and Outreach (SJO) Committee will offer grants to fund church garden initiatives. For the last six years, the diocesan SJO Committee has offered a few (4-8) small grants to support the efforts of creating and sustaining parish-based vegetable gardens. In 2019, one new garden at St. Thomas, Northern Cambria was created. Five established gardens received funding: St. Andrew’s, Highland Park, Holy Cross, Homewood, St. David’s, Peters Township, Spring Street Farms at the Community of Celebration, Aliquippa, and Shepherd’s Wellness Community in Bloomfield.
While the SJO budget is very small, they are able to fund these garden grants, in part through donations from the Outreach Commission of St. Paul’s, Mount Lebanon, the Women of Calvary, East Liberty, and Christ Church, North Hills, and private individuals. The SJO notes that any parish or individual desiring to donate to this effort should contact Canon Kathi Workman, diocesan treasurer, at kworkman@episcopalpgh.org or Marianne Novy, chair of SJO, at mnovy@pitt.edu.
Applying for a garden grant: These grants are intended to encourage Episcopal parishes and organizations in the Diocese to create new vegetable gardens or to support already functioning gardens with small material needs such as: seed or plant purchases, fencing, bed construction, soil or fertilizer purchases, soil testing costs, hand tool purchases, water connections, rain barrels, etc.
Depending on the location and circumstance, we expect that produce grown will be distributed through local food pantries or organization-based outreach efforts. In past years, some gardens have played a significant role in youth education. These grants are not intended to support an exclusive or private garden, nor a garden designed solely for decorative purposes. We have prepared a guide to setting up a small garden; this guide is available by contacting Pat Eagon at pkeagon@gmail.com. If you are awarded a grant, the funds will be distributed in late winter/early spring, 2020.
The maximum grant request for this program should be no more than $500. Funds are to be used in the calendar year 2020 unless an extension is submitted and approved by the SJO committee. Priority will be given to those applications that seek to start new gardens, but the committee will also consider applications seeking to sustain existing gardens that meet the eligibility described in the application. Application forms are available by clicking here, and are due via USPS, postmarked by March 13, 2020, or electronically by March 17, 2020. Electronically submitted applications or any questions regarding eligibility can be directed to Marianne Novy, Chair of SJO at mnovy@pitt.edu or Pat Eagon at pkeagon@gmail.com.