Another Harvest Monday: August 11, 2008

We brought another load of fresh produce to Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes today. The tomatoes are starting to ripen in full force. Tomatoes followed by beans seem to be our most productive crops this, our first year. At Loaves & Fishes we were greeted by Marvin King (featured in the photo to the left), who we have come to expect to see when we make our weekly deliveries. Mr. King always greets us with a warm welcome and a smile. We always look forward to seeing him.

Back to the garden, our corn shows few signs of producing anything but stalks for us this year. Deb Zulauf plans to pull it and replant a late season plot of beans and peas in its place. We are hoping that our efforts to add organic materials and nutrients to the soil this year will make next year's garden even more productive. We are also discussing what crops to include next year, and which ones to eliminate. Stay tuned to this blog for more on this process -- especially toward next year's planting season.

Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes in the news

The piece below on Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes appeared in the Sunday, August 10, 2008 edition of The Kalamazoo Gazette, and it also in the Gazette's on-line edition available through http://www.mlive.com/. Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes needs help keeping up with demands for food Sunday, August 10, 2008 BY ANNE WEND LIPSEY A 50 percent increase in service in just one year -- that's the increase in Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes' emergency food distribution during the first seven months of this year over the same period in 2007 -- and demands continue to rise. In July alone, we sent out more than 100,934 pounds of food -- 77,861 through our Grocery Pantry Program and the rest to support other food programs. Are we amazed? You bet! Are we keeping up? Yes, barely. Are we pleased to be able to keep up? Definitely. Yet when we have a moment to think about it, we have very mixed feelings about this accomplishment. On one hand, we're incredibly grateful to this community for its support of this effort. Without ongoing donations of food, time and dollars, getting groceries to hungry people wouldn't happen at all, let alone at these levels. Each week we work with over 400 volunteers in our call center, warehouse and grocery pantries to help connect hungry people with food supplies. Just this summer, we added service capacity through two new pantry partnerships and the Mobile Pantry, which is operating five times a month. On the other hand, we're disturbed by the level of need reflected in this service record. Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes provided Kalamazoo County residents with 22,112 emergency food days -- three meals each day -- in July 2008, up from 14,681 in July a year ago. These numbers are a stark reminder that growing numbers of real people are experiencing real harm to their health and well-being in this tough economic environment. At Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, our system is running at full speed plus. Every day we're moving, literally, tons of food into and out of our warehouse. Every day the phone rings almost constantly. One call center volunteer took 53 different phone calls during her three-hour shift a couple of weeks ago, setting up appointments with pantries for households across Kalamazoo County. Are we panicked? Not quite. But we need everyone in this community to know that, today, it's increasingly tough to keep up this level of service. Rising food and energy costs are having an impact on all of our household and business budgets. It's not surprising that Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes' costs of doing business are going up dramatically -- at the same time we're experiencing unprecedented increases in the need for our emergency food service. Today, a growing number of people who never expected to find themselves needing emergency food -- people who contributed generously in the past -- are included among those receiving emergency food assistance. Today, volunteers are having to choose whether or not they can afford to utilize high-priced gasoline to get them to their volunteer assignment. Today, Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes is struggling to keep up with the demand for very basic food items -- peanut butter, tuna, hearty soups, canned fruits and vegetables -- as costs rise and donations of canned goods decline. Today, Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes is struggling to buy adequate supplies of these and other foods. Reliant on the generosity of this community, Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes has combined donations of food, time and dollars into an effective and efficient grocery pantry program that ensures access to emergency food five days a week, year-round, for over 26 years. But today, we're challenged to keep up with the boundless ``perfect storm'' of rising demands and rising costs within the context of the most serious economic downturn this region has experienced in decades. This is a critical time for many people and for Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes and, unfortunately, not a time that will end soon. Are we panicked? Not quite. But we need your help. Across this community we know there are people willing to pitch in. We need your faith communities, workplaces, schools and neighborhoods to join us in collecting critical food items for distribution through the Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes system. And we need your help securing the dollars necessary to keep the refrigerator and truck running and the lights on and to buy food supplies to supplement donations. We need your help. Please contact Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes at 488-2617, ext. 208. We can find a place for your support to be utilized, immediately, to help ensure food security for everyone in our community. Anne Wend Lipsey is the executive director of Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes.

One of Our Weekly Harvests: July 28, 2008

Here is just one of our weekly harvests. This bounty of fresh organic vegetables weighed in at 14 pounds! All the time - God is Good!

Oh those Weeds: July 26, 2008

The garden continues to grow and we are grateful for what we have been able to provide to Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes so far. We have had some issues with insects, but a spray of a garlic solution seems to have helped. We are keeping the garden organic, so that means managing weeds by hand, and even using chickens along with the garlic spray to control the insects.

It's Growing: July 7, 2008

With minimal work by us, God has smiled on our garden and made it grow. Here are some pictures of our garden. Along with the produce also have come weeds, but they are part of the process. Meanwhile, we have started to harvest fresh vegetables and making weekly deliveries to Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes.

God is good - all the time!

Our Supporters and Recipient

Our garden would not have been possible without the support of our community's businesses who helped make this dream possible by donating plants, seeds and supplies for the garden. We encourage you to support these local businesses who have supported us: - Schram’s Greenhouse 7313 S. Westnedge Avenue Portage (269) 327-5347 -Centre Street Market 732 E. Centre Avenue Portage (269) 327-8144 - Romence Gardens 9660 Shaver Road Portage (269) 323-8310 - Four Seasons Tree Service 77 E. Main Street Breedsville (269) 427-5082. The produce that we are growing is graciously being accepted for distribution to those in need by: - Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes 913 E Alcott St Kalamazoo (269) 343-3663 www.kzoolf.org

Planting Day: May 24, 2008

With much excitement and many helpers, we set out to plant our garden on Saturday, May 24. As with our previous two work Saturdays, the weather was perfect. The ground had been prepared and the fence posts were in place. Our team went to work immediately plotting out the garden beds, then planting various plants and seeds. Meanwhile, others worked to install the fence and build and install a gate. By the end of the day, we had the whole garden planted with crops such as cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, radishes, squash, peppers and kale. Thanks to all who helped, the day was a huge success! Once the garden was planted, we added colorful streamers to our garden fence to help keep the wildlife out. The streamers gave the garden an added festive look. As of this post, the fence and streamers seem to have worked.

Protecting our Crops

Although Portage, Michigan is an actual city, we are blessed with an abundance of wildlife including plenty of deer. In fact, deer are often seen crossing the land that the garden is located on. Though lovely to watch, these deer could make all of our hard work for naught. Therefore, we decided to install a fence around the garden plot in hopes of keeping the deer at least somewhat deterred. Our plan for the fence was to place eight foot long wooden posts two feet in the ground, then attached four foot high wire fence to it. The posts were spaced ten feet apart from each other. After digging the first couple of post holes by hand, we rented a power post hole digger from a nearby rental shop, which we should have done from the start. With the power digger, our work was done in about the same amount of time that it took to dig the first couple of holes. With the holes dug, we installed the posts and packed loose soil in around them.

The Preparation

May 10, 2008.

With our garden plot staked out, it was time to remove the established sod. Luckily, one of our church members and his son showed up with a power sod cutter and a front-end loader. The garden was laid out over a 40' x 50' (2,000 square foot) area, so we had a lot of sod to remove. Fortunately, with the help of the power equipment, this big job was made significantly easier. After a couple of hours of cutting, rolling, lifting and moving the heavy rolls of sod, the job was done -- the garden plot was cleared! So what did we do with the sod that we removed? Through our community's on-line Freecycle network, we were able to "gift" a good amount of it to someone in our area in need.

God is good - All the time!

The Garden Idea

In the spring of 2008, members of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Portage, Michigan realized that their church was blessed with a large area of unused land that received abundant sunshine during the summer months. The idea of using a portion of this land to grow produce for the less fortunate in our community was proposed, and it was widely accept by the church's leadership. Planning for the garden began at that time. The location for the garden was the first decision to be made. A couple of sites were proposed, but they were ruled out for a variety of reasons. A final site was chosen based on its proximity to the church as well as a source for water, and also to fit around other possible uses for the land that it would rest upon. The white box in the image to the left shows the garden site that we chose, which is located to the west of the church and receives full sun throughout the day. Concerns were raised about the potential for deer that roam the area of the church to eat the garden down to the ground. As a result, plans were made to enclose the garden with fencing and wire that was 6 foot high, then decorate the fence and wire with colorful ribbons that would blow in the wind to discourage the deer from hurdling the fence line. It was decided that the garden would be grown organically. Therefore, the existing sod on the site would have to be removed by hand rather than chemically removed. Further, soil preparation and the addition of nutrients would require careful selection of products that were organic in nature. The same would hold true for addressing weeds and remedying any pest issues that might arise. Our approaches to each of these areas will be discussed in future posts.