ThisWeek UA 04/26/2012

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/sections/communities/upper-arlington.html

When Covenant Presbyterian Church members decided to create a community garden, they chose to grow a sense of community at least as much as they grow food.

“The idea was floated in 2009 and we decided this would be a community garden mostly in the sense of getting as many people in the community involved as possible,” master gardener Bob Tannehill said. “So this garden is where the community is involved in operating it and 100-percent of the produce goes to food pantries in central Ohio.”

Tannehill said that current participants include neighbors, Sustainable UA, members of Covenant’s congregation as well as their Jewish congregation, First Community Church, Boy and Girl Scouts and the UA Rotary.

“We are thankful for the seed funding from the church, donations from Livingston Seed and the Franklin Park Conservatory and we received a grant from Scotts Company as well as reduced material costs from several builders,” Tannehill said.

The harvested food is then donated to the Heart-To-Heart Food Pantry, Community Soup Kitchen, Mid-Ohio Workers Association and Covenant’s SOS Food Pantry.

“Sometimes the word community confuses people, (our garden) is for the community to participate in, share their time and lives with others, but it is also for those in need,” Tannehill said. “We also use this as an educational tool, teaching kids about growing food, we are all organic so there’s a lot to know about pest control and nurturing the plants. You can help the community while learning about gardening with just a few hours of your time.”

Tannehill said that anyone interested in participating is welcome and can contact him directly at 587-6627 or robert_tannehill@hotmail.com. The garden is located at 2070 Ridgecliff Rd.

“We are truly helping people day-in and day-out so it is very satisfying to me personally that there are so many people willing to carve out a little time to work on this,” Tannehill said.