7 Reasons Your Church Should Have A Community Garden

Community gardens are powerful tools that can help your church grow stronger together. Community gardens can foster relationships, relieve stress, and so much more. However, before we discuss the benefits of community gardens, let’s talk about what a community garden is. 

What Is A Community Garden

Community gardens are not just gardens. They are communities. 

There are many ways to define community. In broad terms, a community is a group of people with common interests. These individuals may live together within a particular region or belong to an organization. 

For example, I am a Christian, which makes me a part of the Christian community, but I am also a Bahamian which makes me a part of the Bahamian community. I am also a part of several food blogger groups, which makes me of those communities too. 

Therefore, a community garden is a place located in a rural, urban, or suburban area used to grow vegetables, flowers, or communities. 

The great part about community gardens is that they can be located anywhere. You can create a community garden in your neighborhood, hospital, school, or church.

Benefits Of Community Gardens

Community gardens have so many benefits. From creating strong relationships to providing food, being environmentally friendly, and relieving stress, a community garden will only improve your church. 

Foster Relationships 

A community garden is a shared activity. One person does not tend to the garden. A group of people tend to the garden. 

Humans are social creatures. This creates an opportunity for the members of your church to get to know one another while taking care of the garden. They can share stories and experiences which will bring them closer. 

Over time, your church members will rely on one another for advice and help to navigate difficult situations. Ultimately, the relationships fostered in the community garden will last a lifetime. 

Provide Fresh Food 

A garden can provide fresh food. You can plant a wide variety of herbs, vegetables, and fruit. Yes, it will take time and patience for the food to grow, but once it does, your church will have access to fresh food. 

There are several ways to use the fresh produce from your community garden. If your church has a soup kitchen, you can use fresh produce to prepare the food. Over time, the produce from the community garden will reduce the costs of running the kitchen. 

You can also give the fresh food away to members of your church who are in need or a homeless shelter. 

Alternatively, you can also sell the food as fresh produce or use it to make other items to sell. For example, if you are growing seasonal fruits such as oranges, apricots, and blackberries, you can use them to make marmalade, jam, or jelly and sell them. You can use the funds from the sales to make improvements to your church, donate to those in need, or purchase more supplies for the community garden. 

Reduce The Carbon Footprint 

Community gardens can drastically decrease food miles. For example, the Bahamas imports almost 90 percent of its food. 

Most of this food comes from the US. Although The Bahamas is only 80 kilometers off the coast of Florida, there would still be a substantial decrease in food miles if some of the local churches were to start a community garden. Instead of buying imported produce from the store, they could harvest it from the community garden and distribute it to their members or even sell it to local stores willing to buy locally grown produce. 

Relieve Stress 

Community gardens can relieve stress. When you are tending to the garden, you are focused on the task at hand. Whether you are planting the seed or tilling the soil, you are actively focusing on what you are doing. You are not focused on the thing that is stressing you out because you will be too busy gardening.  

Therefore, gardening acts as a temporary escape. It helps relieve the stress and makes you feel at peace, giving you a clear mind to deal with the stressful situation.  

Improve Physical Health 

Gardening is hard work. It’s exercise. Believe it or not, spending 30-45 minutes gardening or in your yard may burn up to 300 calories. 

Furthermore, you use several muscles to perform actions like removing weeds and tilling the soil. You will also be transporting heavy items like soil, fertilizer, or mulch to your garden, which takes a tremendous amount of strength. All of these activities will keep your church members in great physical health. 

Beautify Your Church 

Community gardens produce fresh, vibrant colored plant life, which will automatically make your church look that much better. Even if you place a few flower beds in front of the entryway into the church, they will turn a dull, dry area into one worth remembering. 

Furthermore, if you grow fresh flowers in your garden, you can use them to make arrangements for special events like weddings, Mother’s Day, or anniversaries. 

Education

Gardening is an excellent way to educate both children and adults. Your church probably has people from all walks of life, including economic, cultural, racial, and even religious backgrounds. A community garden is the perfect way for your church members to interact with one another and learn about their life experiences. 

You can discuss environmental issues, tips, and tricks for preparing the food grown in the garden, or ways to improve the garden with your church members.  

Furthermore, community gardens present the perfect opportunity to introduce children to healthier foods at a younger age. They will learn how to care for plant life as well as many other life lessons that they can share with their children when they are older. 

Gardening together means growing together. There’s no better way to grow together as a fellowship in Christ than to create a community garden. 

A community garden provides access to fresh food, relieves stress, improves physical health, and so much more. All of these benefits will help you build a stronger church.