For many of us, fresh flowers are an instant way to brighten our day. For two of our food pantry visitors, that’s exactly what happened. During our volunteer crew’s weekly gardening session, two individuals stopped by just in time to receive bouquets cut directly from the flower bed next to Franklin Street. Both were deeply appreciative and shared that the flowers “made their day”. This is just what we hope to do with our food pantry garden.
The garden has always been located behind the food pantry, but in 2024, FCC proposed a project to revitalize the space and the community voted the project as part of the City of Saratoga Springs Participatory Budgeting Program to receive a $5,000 grant.
FCC’s garden crew, made up of three long-time and dedicated volunteers and one staff member, dove right into the work of turning the small, shady, and overgrown yard into a welcoming community gathering space. Season one was all about the infrastructure. Efforts were focused on determining best locations for raised beds, removing limbs to increase sun, and adding a five-bay compost system, which was built in partnership with the Saratoga Joinery and another FCC volunteer. In its first year, the garden engaged many volunteer groups, hosted a group of summer campers who learned about composting, and produced vegetables and flowers for the food pantry.
Currently, the garden features taller raised beds growing lettuce and beans, as well as five ground-level raised beds that are home to tomatoes, herbs, zucchinis, onions, scallions, garlic (harvested and drying), and more. The front yard features a beautiful flower garden, home to daisies, echinacea, cosmos and sunflowers, to name a few.
This week, our garden crew harvested mixed greens, green beans, and a cherry tomato, which were shared with the food pantry visitors as an add-on to their grocery pick-ups. Aside from vegetables, the gardeners harvested four bouquets of cut flowers. Typically, the gardeners cut bouquets to place in the food pantry’s extras section, but today, the timing was perfect, and two bouquets went straight to visitors as they left with their groceries.
Future goals include amending the soil, adding a native tree to the front flower bed, and finalizing the layout so that we are ready for next season. We hope to build on this progress next year and get closer to our vision of an inclusive and welcoming space for community members to walk through, share in our harvests, and learn about gardening and sustainability at their own home.
Stay tuned for more updates about our food pantry garden, including ways you can get involved.
