Paulding FFA Community Garden teaches gardening tips to preschoolers ~By Sydney Reineck, FFA Reporte
Kids from Ann’s Bright Beginnings recently visited the Paulding FFA Community Garden. Here, Paulding FFA officers Riley Noffsinger, Shannon Hale, Courtney Luderman, Sydney Reineck and Jen Stahl greet their visitors in front of the community garden.
On Friday, July 13, the Paulding FFA chapter had Ann’s Bright Beginning daycare help their officer team with some gardening at the Paulding FFA Community Garden, located at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Paulding. The kids helped weed, harvest herbs, tie up tomatoes and plant more radishes to be harvested and donated to the local food pantry. They also played games and tried fresh kale chips and ate fresh zucchini muffins for a snack. The Paulding FFA appreciates the church for providing the space for this garden. This is the second growing season for the garden.
The community garden started when three chapter members returned from a leadership conference in Washington, D.C., where they were challenged to create a product through a living to serve plan. The members choose the garden and wrote several grants to help build and maintain the garden. The members plant, maintain and harvest the produce each week. Each member has a week throughout the summer where they weed, water, pick, and do general upkeep of the garden. The vegetables planted at the community garden are donated to the local food pantry every Wednesday and Saturday. Last year, over 400 pounds of produce were donated. New this year, a recipe book was developed, so people can have recipes ideas of what to make with their fresh produce. The chapter was very excited for Ann’s daycare kids to learn about the garden and to help maintain this beautiful garden for our local community. The Paulding FFA is very excited to continue this project and donate fresh produce for others to enjoy.
