A community garden to feed Greene County’s soul
Waynesburg University students Victoria Gesselberty and Shane Gottschalk.
Waynesburg University student Jonathan West helps clear an area for a garden at Corner Cupboard Food Bank.
Candace Tustin, right, executive director at Corner Cupboard Food Bank, and Zachary Payne look over plans during the building of the garden at Corner Cupboard Food Bank in Waynesburg on Aug. 20.
Waynesburg University student Mary Cunningham helps build wooden panels.
A view of the plant boxes
Waynesburg University students carry a large stone as they clear an area for the garden.
Waynesburg University students Josh Sneeringer, left, and Trevor Kniha dig holes for the garden at Corner Cupboard Food Bank in Waynesburg.
Not long after Candace Tustin became the new executive director of the Corner Cupboard Food Bank last fall, she had a vision about how to better involve the community with the charitable operation.
She had seen in other areas where food banks and farmers markets used community gardens to inspire people to volunteer or give donations, but most importantly, interact with those in need.
Outside of the food bank’s office along Rolling Meadows Road in Franklin Township, Tustin noticed the neatly mowed lawn on the side of the concrete warehouse. Where others may have seen green grass, she saw an opportunity.
“We constantly have so much going on, and it’s only a two-person staff. It was just a thought of mine,” she says. “I had been reading a lot about community gardens in collaboration with food banks and farmers markets. I was thinking about it, talking with friends about it … Wouldn’t that be neat?”
A year later, her vision is transforming into reality after an army of Waynesburg University students and staff spent a recent Saturday morning building the elevated beds and fenced enclosures that will be the centerpiece of the community garden.
“I was completely blown away by how much the students were able to get done,” Tustin says. “I’m just flabbergasted how much they got done and how nice it looks. It’s really exciting the progress they made in just a few hours.”
The community garden will be a collection of five elevated planters more than a foot off the ground next to a picnic table. Parts of the garden can be seen by motorists passing by along Rolling Meadows Road near the Greene County Historical Museum, which Tustin says is the point.
People who regularly visit the food bank or area pantries for food and supplies will be able to plant and pick the small crops, but the garden is more about building support than merely feeding those in need.
“It’s the idea of the community coming together,” Tustin says. “Yes, it’s a means where clients can come and pick food to help themselves. But I feel like we’re growing that ‘togetherness’ from the community.”
The community has already responded with lumber donations from Wayne Lumber and a sizeable grant from Nobel Energy to get the project off the ground. Prisoners at the Greene County jail, just a stone’s throw from the food bank, will water and weed the garden during work-release programs, the Penn State Extension office nearby will give advice on what to pant and area church groups have already volunteered to assist when needed. Tustin also hopes the students will come back next year to help.
That appears to be the case with Carissa Swab, a human services major entering her senior year at Waynesburg U. She has done many other service projects before, but she loved the idea of helping to build a sustainable project that goes beyond picking up litter or weeding, both of which will one day return.
“It will be greatly needed for the community. Greene County needs the help,” Swab says. “If all of us were just clearing brush and cleaning, I don’t think it would have as much of as impact. Building something that will continue to help the community is important.”
But the community garden likely would have never happened without the help of the local college. Kelley Hardie , assistant dean of students at Waynesburg University , approached Tustin in May about various service projects the students perform and wondered how they could help. Hardie thought the students could do more than just clean and organize the warehouse, and that’s when the light bulb went off in Tustin’s head.
“She said she always wanted to do a community garden,” Hardie says. “Let’s make this a reality instead of just an idea. Now we have the end product, which is fantastic.”
Tustin was “blown away” by the number of the hundreds of freshmen students who showed up and worked briskly to build her vision in just a few hours. Tustin typically gets no more than 15 volunteers to show for service projects, so she couldn’t believe the orange-clad army that arrived in droves of school buses.
The planting will begin in the spring with “easy things” that will grow quickly and can be picked by anyone who stops by. Until then, Tustin wants to work with various community organizations to hold regular cooking seminars and healthy eating classes that would be free for the food bank’s clients and cost only a few dollars for the general public.
“It’s like a chain. People in the community support us and we support the community,” Tustin says. “People are putting something into the garden and getting something out of it. I think it’s an amazing effort all around.”
With the closing of Emerald Mine last November and the rising unemployment rate in Greene County, Tustin says the food bank is more important than ever.
She hopes the community garden will bring people together for a single cause. “Growing a garden here shows everyone they can help themselves,” Tustin says. “The community can help itself.”