The City of Salem’s first community garden broke ground recently with an unusual twist – unlike the network of community gardens now popping up all over Roanoke City, the one in Salem will grow vegetables like the others – but that produce will be sent to the Salem Food Pantry for redistribution, not to people that apply for a space in the garden. Volunteers will still be needed to work the garden, a 40’ by 100’ space donated by Salem Presbyterian Church, located near City Hall.
Salem City Council member Lisa Garst was at the groundbreaking; she called this first garden a pilot project: “we [first] need to make sure that we’ve got enough volunteers to staff it.” Garst said civic and faith-based groups will work the plot, which will be planted next March-April, with the first harvest expected a few months later. An organizational meeting will be held next month to talk about staffing the garden.
Garst said the need to replenish the shelves at the Salem Food Pantry increases “every month … in the last six years in particular during the recession. The need has never been greater.” Garst said they would like to supplement the canned and boxed goods donated with healthier food like fresh produce grown right in Salem.
They’re hoping that this first community garden will yield 300-400 pounds of vegetables next year – and that it won’t be the last set up in Salem. The donated spot “was meant to be,” added Garst, “its in the heart of the city, there’s plenty of parking. The soil is good, the sun is shining on it.”
Thomas Barber is one of the volunteer coordinators; he also works in the Salem school system: “I see a need, where kids don’t understand what it is to eat healthy and to have proper nutrition in their diets. I felt like this would be a good way to give back to the community and reach our kids directly by having a garden here.” Right now if you ask some youngsters what a tomato is or where it comes from, Barber said, “they would have no idea. [A garden] can really make a big difference.”
Barber intends to bring some of those students to the garden next spring; he’s also hoping they’ll put more pressure on their parents to start serving healthier foods like the vegetables they will be watching grow in the community garden. “They can change the lifestyle in their family,” Barber noted.
City of Salem horticulturalist Laura Reilly, who also manages the Farmer’s Market on Main Street, said the city was “passionate in supporting those who have needs in our community.” Reilly also said “multiple” individuals had approached the city about getting a community garden started. With limited resources and understaffing it wasn’t a top priority, but the donated plot and plans for volunteer labor made it more feasible.
“That’s where we developed a partnership. We’re going to be in support of this and [work on] some of the infrastructure pieces,” said Reilly, “but we’re also going to expect volunteers to pull their weight. We don’t want it to fall back on city employees or to cost us more than it should.”
Private donations will help pay for water hoses, tools, “anything involved with growing,” added Reilly. By next spring it should start to take root – literally – if all goes as planned. “We’re really looking for support from the community … the city will support it in any way that we can.”
– Gene Marrano
