A sizable gathering of community minded enthusiasts joined for the annual “End-of-Year Harvest Celebration” at the Carver Garden this past weekend. Participants enjoyed a variety of food tastings, including vegetable chili, pecan pie, butternut squash soup, lemonade, mulled cider, and various canned fruits from the garden. A drum circle provided entertainment in an outdoor patio setting, along with dancers and singers, and everyone who wanted some, went home with year-end produce such as butternut squash, watermelon, and pumpkin.
On Friday, October 18th, the Carver Garden played host to a group of 8 veterans from the Salem VA medical hospital. This 2-hour community garden outing, organized by Jared Evans, the VA recreational therapist was intended to provide an obvious therapeutic benefit and to introduce the veterans to opportunities for using this resource.
One Valley is one of the organizations recently awarded a Healthy Hearts Initiative Grant by the Virginia Department of Health that will provide weekly produce to Hill Church and McCray Court (NNEO).
One Valley has also been awarded a mini-grant through the “Advancing Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems in Virginia Initiative’s” Mini Grant program. This grant program is operated through the Virginia Tech Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program, and our USDA-FSA partners. The objective of this grant is to build the capacity of the existing urban community gardens by supporting an Urban Agricultural Trainee/Manager, by developing a marketing plan consistent with a self-supporting enterprise, and by restructuring the management of an urban orchard area for improved long-term productivity.
One Valley has continued to distribute weekly produce from our two community gardens to several local food pantries – The Hope Center and St. Mark’s Lions Share – along with McCray Court Senior Center and Roanoke Area Ministries (RAM). From July through October, we have donated about 3,400 lbs. of produce to these organizations, which has been partially offset by a grant through the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth. Pictured below are some of our partners from the Hope Center and the Lions Share, along with One Valley gardeners who harvested and assembled the produce for distribution.
