Connecticut garden helps Amenia food pantry

AMENIA UNION — St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Amenia Union three years ago started a small garden with a big mission — to grow fresh produce to donate to local food pantries. It has since begun its own food pantry, the Food of Life Food Pantry, at the church on Leedsville Road. The pantry operates every Friday from 3 to 5 p.m.

This year the church has taken its project even further. It’s now working with the Sharon House Garden Project, in Sharon, Conn., which has a 52-raised-bed organic garden, created specifically to grow fresh food for the poor and hungry in the region. This year the garden project is donating all of its crops to The Food of Life Food Pantry. Volunteers from the Amenia Union church, as well as Millbrook’s Grace Church, and other local community members, are helping out at the Sharon garden. More volunteers, however, would be welcome.

“It’s become a real community effort,†Rev. Betsy Fisher of St. Thomas Church said. “I think God’s done it. This is an amazing group of people. I could have met with  resistance or apathy, but this group of people is extraordinary, with great gifts, and they’re willing to share those gifts.â€

High on that list of the generous are Mary and Dan Gates, who for 10 years have operated the Sharon House Garden Project from their homestead.

“It’s been wonderful,†Dan Gates said, adding that his wife, Mary, is also an Episcopalian priest who was keen on finding ways to help the hungry. He, himself, is a psychotherapist who works from his home office.

He quipped that he was searching for an escape from mowing the lawn. “The whole thing works with volunteers. We grow all our own stuff from seed, and our master gardener oversees stuff. Several schools are involved too, as well as the churches.

“It means a lot,†he added. “It’s a great project and a lot of fun and all the people make it happen. It creates a connection between people and that word we talk about — community. We can relate to each other under a very good cause.â€

Gates said that anywhere from one to two dozen volunteers participate in the gardening on a fairly consistent basis. There’s also a focus on raising organic produce, with no pesticides or fungicides and only the freshest crops are shared with the food pantry. Fisher said there’s a definite need that’s being filled by the garden’s bounty.

“We see a lot of families with children, a lot of single mothers, and it’s been spread mostly by word of mouth,†she said. “We started as a two-day-a-week pantry giving out two days worth of food, but now we’ve expanded to giving out three days worth of food. We feed an average of 150 people a week. We figured that in our first year of opening we gave out 30,000 meals. The Holy Spirit doesn’t do anything small.â€

People from throughout the community have contributed to the pantry. A Millbrook Boy Scout troop has done fundraisers and donated money to the pantry; the Millbrook School District’s faculty has done the same. Individuals from around the valley have also contributed. That’s just to name a few, according to Fisher.

“It’s become a real community effort,†she said. “That’s what church is about. It’s for there to be the presence of God in our local community to those in need. And this is really a community church.â€

Anyone interested in volunteering at the garden should contact Fisher at 845-373-9161, or go to the Web site stthomasamenia.org.

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