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The Franciscan Community Garden: Laudata Si in Action!

The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.” – 1 Corinthians 3:8

The Franciscan Community garden is in front of LaVerna, the log cabin house, down the stairs across from the chapel, and is truly a community experience. The many parish volunteers who come out every Saturday make the space come alive and are responsible for the success and expansion over the past 13+ years. Paul Kelly, one of the coordinators with his wife Pat, famously points out, “The right person has always turned up at the right time with the right skill set to get the job done. For example, a young man saw a request from the garden on the donations bulletin board at Logan’s. We were putting in a fence; he had just built a fence on 6 acres locally. He volunteered to come out and help put the fence up and even donated the Mary statue for the Mary Garden. That’s the last time we saw him!” 

Besides the seemingly obvious examples of divine intervention, the ‘right person, with the right skills, at the right time’ experiences, the garden also takes hard work. Fortunately, the garden draws many to the challenge. As their weekly update from Pat mentions, the tasks include planting, harvesting, germinating, infrastructure repair, drip irrigation set-up and maintenance, harvesting, composting, delivering produce to Plant a Row for the Hungry at Logan’s, and weeding; “constantly weeding!” says Pat. “After seeing how we operate, we always encourage helpers to self-determine what they want to do,” adds Pat. “That way, each person develops his/her own gifts and soon becomes a self-starter. Besides, we’re not great at directing others.”

All this hard work does pay off! A fantastic amount of food is donated yearly, and they have averaged over 2000 lbs/year during their 13+ years of service. Part of this is because they get food from the Black Farmer’s CSA at St. Francis. People may donate from their CSA boxes because they have more than they need and want to ensure it doesn’t go to waste. Last year was a banner year because some local gardeners, both parishioners and non-parishioners, contributed too; all told, they donated over 5,000 lbs of food in 2023. All the food is grown sustainably in the garden, in line with the tenets of the Franciscan charism, and donated to the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and the ‘Plant a Row’ program.

As the Kellys point out, “The garden, and all our volunteers who make it work, couldn’t function without the financial support of St. Francis.” Volunteers’ supplies, such as tools and gloves, are provided from the funds they receive. Additionally, the community donates time and talent, too! 6th-grade science teacher Karen Kuropas brings her students to the garden to help and learn about plants. “With the school,” Pat says, “there seems to be the recognition of Laudato Si (the Pope’s encyclical inviting a conversation on our common home and the environment) as represented by the garden, and the parish is embracing that association too.” But it isn’t all just work. Parishioners can also benefit from the fresh food from the garden. “We always have a lot of herbs, and people are welcome to come and help themselves,” says Paul. Even Father Joseph, who likes hot peppers, will get some from the community garden.

Pat and Paul mention they are looking forward to the parish staff coming on October 25th as part of their Day of Service: “Those PE Teachers are strong guys!” Soon, they will harvest the sweet potatoes, which they say is always a fun treasure hunt. The thing about sweet potatoes, says Paul, is “there is no secret with them; they take care of themselves.” But someone does have to harvest them. As our days get cooler, it is an excellent time to visit the garden to volunteer and see what it’s all about!