Copperas Cove church starts community garden
By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press
Gardening can be a form of healing, a way to develop a spiritual bond, and a way to grow food, not just for yourself, but for others as well.
Kendra Price and Krista Felber came up with the idea for a community garden at Southern Hills Baptist Church as a way to achieve all of that and more, inviting members of the community to be a part of their project.
The two held an open house event for their garden Saturday starting at 10 a.m. inviting the public out to check out the available plots and have a good time. They had crafts for the kids and baked goods for sale.
There are still some plots available for $20 each for one year. Each plot is 3-foot by 4-foot.
The Southern Hills Baptist Church donated money and manpower to help get the garden started. They helped with clearing out an area near the church, fencing it in, and getting everything started.
“Southern Hills has been instrumental in getting this started,” said Price. “They really helped us get off the ground.”
Price said that food prices are “soaring”, so growing your own food can help with that. She also plans to donate a percentage of the food that she grows. Price said that another motivating factor is that “You can better control what’s going into your food.”
“The garden has been instrumental in lowering my A1C,” said Price.
She said that kids are much more likely to eat their fruits and vegetables if they personally had a hand in growing them.
Price said that she hopes they will eventually be able to have a gardening club. She and Felber are working to become Master Gardeners and are looking forward to sharing their knowledge. The group hopes to teach classes on the basics of growing and things like composting and collecting rainwater.
“Water conservation is a huge need, especially in Texas,” said Price.
Price is currently working on growing cushaw squash and pumpkins. Some of the plots are reserved for the church which plans on growing food to donate to those in need. They hope to eventually plant fruit and nut trees as their community garden becomes more popular.
“It’ll be an edible oasis,” said Felbar.
Felber is the owner of The Duckery, a bakery selling goods made with duck eggs and other farm fresh ingredients. She said that she’s really looking forward to growing more homegrown ingredients.
Jason Price, the senior pastor for Southern Hills Baptist Church said that the community garden gives them something extra to offer to the community. He said that they are a small, country church and many of their members have gardens of their own or raise farm animals. Many already practice canning their own food and have life skills that can relate to the community garden.
“You can tell people about what you know but people don’t care about what you know until you show that you care,” said Pastor Price. “We saw it as a community benefit, and we saw it as a church benefit.”
Pastor Price talked about how gardening can help teach some of its members to understand some of the lessons of the Bible more clearly.
“The gardening has also been instructional with Bible teaching, helping to understand the Gospel and some of the principles behind things like sowing and reaping and the spiritual context of that,” said Pastor Price. “I’ve had people come to me and tell me that ‘Man, I was out in the garden, and it was so hard to pull those weeds out,’ and then they had a moment. They remembered the Bible teaching about how hard it is to uproot the difficult things that are in us. It takes a lot of work, but they sprout so easily, and it’s so hard to sow in the good things. They take maintenance, management, and watering, and it’s the same with our human condition.”
Pastor Price said that the community garden will hopefully be a source of community outreach. They hope to be able to provide access to fresh fruits and vegetables and encourage healthy living.
Those who want to learn more about the community garden can visit Rootedshbc.com to learn more. The church is located at 2920 S. F.M. 116.