High tunnel to extend growing season at Trinity UCC’s community garden in North Akron

Published October 16, 2014  at 9:51 p.m.

By Colette Jenkins from the Akron Beacon Journal 

The North Hill neighborhood surrounding Trinity United Church of Christ is embarking on a transformation from an urban food desert to oasis, where there is better access to healthy choices.

The construction of a seasonal high tunnel Thursday at the church, 915 N. Main St., signaled the commitment of the Eastern Ohio Association Council and three congregations — one urban, Trinity; one suburban, First Congregational of Hudson; and one rural, Edinburg United Church of Christ, in Portage County’s Edinburg Township — to sponsor a 1,344-square-foot community garden to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to neighbors.

“We are always looking for ways to benefit the general community. Because of our involvement in a health initiative and the fact that the immediate area around the church is classified as a food desert — a place where access to grocery stores and fresh foods is limited — a community garden seemed like a good way to get people in the neighborhood involved in gardening and taking care of the earth and putting healthy food on their tables at the same time,” said the Rev. Carl Wallace, pastor at Trinity.

A four-man crew from Pinehill Masonry of Dundee (just south of Wooster) spent most of the day Thursday constructing the steel-framed, unheated greenhouse on the north side of the church building. The purpose of the structure is to protect plants and extend the growing season.

The first crop planted in the local community garden is rye wheat. The cover crop will help improve soil quality.

Funding for the project comes through a U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation program.

“The funding is available to socially disadvantaged, beginning and limited-resource farmers,” said Alphonso Norwood, a USDA urban conservationist. “Urban gardens can be used to help educate community members about food quality and give them access to fresh food closer to home. The longer food stays out, the more it loses its nutritional value, so this garden will be very beneficial to people living in the neighborhood.”

Norwood, a representative from the International Institute in Akron and a representative from U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge’s office joined Wallace and the Rev. Peter Wiley, pastor at First Congregational Church Hudson, at the construction site at mid-morning to celebrate the accomplishment.

Fudge, D-Warrensville Heights, was instrumental in securing funds.

“Anything we can do to help others in the broader community, we are happy to do because that is part of our calling” as Christians, Wiley said. “We have an ongoing relationship with Pastor Wallace and Trinity that has helped us develop roots in the broader community. The community garden is another part of the vision for the neighborhood around Trinity.”

Wallace said that in addition to providing access to healthy foods for community members, the garden will provide learning opportunities for students at Findley elementary, a school that the partner churches have adopted.

“This is already working out much better than we planned — and we haven’t even planted the first vegetables,” Wallace said. “People from our partner churches came in and helped clear the land, which included the removal of a big, old stump. Edinburg is supplying us with farmers who really know what they’re doing. We’re pulling in the International Institute to help us reach the Asian refugee population in the neighborhood and we have a way to engage children.”

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/high-tunnel-to-extend-growing-season-at-trinity-ucc-s-community-garden-in-north-akron-1.532427