As volunteers placed a new raised bed garden outside Anchor House Family Assistance Center and Pantry in Seymour, three children temporarily living in the homeless shelter for families asked to help.
The response of those participating in the Jackson County United Way Day of Caring project?
“Absolutely,” said Adam Jackson, who was on the Leadership Jackson County social concerns project team with Katrina Hill, Eric Stevenson and Meghan Warren that put in the work to make the project happen.
“That made it all meaningful the work that we did to see those three little children who had never been around a garden and never eaten fresh fruits and vegetables in their lives say, ‘Yeah, I want to be a part of this,'” Jackson said. “This day for myself and the others that were there, it was a much bigger picture that we were able to grasp. This brought it home.”
The kids were given tools to help place plants in topsoil in the raised bed garden.
“Not only did they do that, but they allowed us to give them the education on how you raise the plants,” Jackson said. “It’s not putting them in the (topsoil) and forgetting about them. … There’s a lot that goes into raising a plant, so you’ve got to teach these kids, and they had a smile from ear to ear. That was moving. That was meaningful work that made all of this hard work worth it to see those three little kids.”
The project team later placed two raised bed gardens outside Lutheran Community Home in Seymour, and they made a positive impact, too. Those benefited the older generation at the assisted living facility, many of whom used to be farmers or gardeners.
“This gives them purpose. This gives them something to look forward to to put their feet on the floor, go out, look at the fruits of their labor and to create community within their organization,” Jackson said. “It gave them something to look forward to every day.”
When the project team learned there are a lot of Type A personalities at the facility, Warren helped solve any possible issues by providing a growing guide for the residents as they take care of the plants.
LJC Executive Director Rexanne Ude said it was great to see the project team make connections in the community to create the raised bed gardens, which will help a wide range of ages.
“I thought this was just really awesome that they are showing you these raised beds are multigenerational,” she said. “You saw young children to senior citizens. It’s a project that hit all ages, which I thought was very inclusive.”
After project teams were announced in November 2020, the social concerns group began thinking about possible projects.
Initially, they wanted to put a garden out there and hope it’s beneficial for the community. Their tagline was “Growing Together as One.”
“We wanted to be a positive thing with the social concerns project,” Jackson said. “We wanted to create unity and purpose within the individuals in this community as well as to bring the community together.”
A community garden, however, takes a lot of people to come together to plant and tend to the seeds to ensure they grow. Plus, the project team knew there already is a community garden next to Margaret R. Brown Elementary School in Seymour, so where would they put a second one?
“We decided to move our thoughts around bringing children to the garden to ‘Let’s take this garden to places where there aren’t any in the community,'” Hill said.
After they chose their two locations, it was time to build the raised bed gardens.
“We found out it takes a lot,” Hill said. “It takes a lot of funding. We all know the price of lumber just really skyrocketed right now, so that was one piece of it.”
The team members decided to handle the labor.
“We decided that that’s what we were going to do and we’re going to make happen,” Hill said. “We’re going to take those skills to the families at Anchor House and the children and provide nourishment of learning, developing and growing together as one.”
Stevenson said they came up with a mock build to ensure everything would come together as expected, but they discovered they had miscalculated and didn’t have material for the bottom of the bed.
“But it worked out well because we discovered that instead of using cedar that had been called for with the plans, we could save about $130 for the garden bed by using plywood,” he said.
It also was late in the season to put seeds in the ground, so the group was able to buy plants for the residents to plant instead of just a box of topsoil.
Another concern about labor went away after the group received approval for a Day of Caring project at Anchor House, and Jackson and his Edward Jones co-workers from around the county joined in on the effort of placing the raised bed garden and planting. Edward Jones also donated plants and money to buy topsoil and mulch.
Hill said The Home Depot donated materials, too.
“I was nervous to just call in and say, ‘Hey, can you guys donate whatever you really have?’ and within 30 seconds, (an employee) said, ‘Yep. Can you come in on Tuesday?’ I was like, ‘Whoa!'” she said. “I was just floored, yet excited and also so grateful.”
After partnering with Lutheran Community Home, they stepped up to the plate and helped with materials for the two raised bed gardens, Hill said.
Brownstown Central High School FFA Adviser Blake Hackman and officials with Purdue Extension Jackson County provided ideas of what to plant, when to plant and what grows well in the gardens.
Plus, Celery Signs provided sponsorship signs for the gardens, Brownstown Greenhouse and Gifts made a great deal on plants, Lawyer Excavation Inc. made a great deal on mulch and top soil and Goecker Building Supply delivered supplies, Hill said.
Ude said the project is easy to replicate, and that’s the team’s hope.
“It doesn’t stop here,” Jackson said. “We want to take this to the community. We started with a bigger idea of getting a community garden and went to something manageable — four beds. If you have a connection to the community, if you are going to provide resources and labor, we would love to have this much bigger because it creates a much bigger impact and it’s putting food in people’s mouths, which is a huge deal.”
Purpose, unity and community are what Jackson County is all about and why Jackson said he loves to live here.
“So we need your help if you would, please,” he said of creating more raised bed gardens around the county.
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If you would like to support the creation of more raised bed gardens in Jackson County, email Adam Jackson at [email protected].
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