News release from Catherine Kasper Place:
City-wide Garden Project Kicks Off with Two Events
(May 9, 2011) – Catherine Kasper Place (formerly the Community Resource Center for Refugees) kicks off Fort Wayne’s largest refugee agricultural project to-date this Thursday, May 12th, with an open house from 11:30am to 1:30pm. The project, known as the Fresh Food Initiative, is a sustainable community agriculture project providing support for refugees to start and sustain gardens and farms.
Gardens and farms are located throughout Fort Wayne, including 36 beds, onsite at Catherine Kasper Place’s Global Garden. During the open house the gardens will be open to tour and vegetable seedlings will be available for purchase. Additional sites include a four-acre plot donated by the City, a one-acre lot donated by a private citizen and several 150 square-foot plots at St. Henry’s Catholic Church.
The Fresh Food Initiative’s 27 refugee participants choose goals ranging from having a kitchen garden for personal use to building a for-profit market business. The project creates a local food system that provides fresh, healthy produce to our community’s refugee population, as well as skills training, job opportunities and community networking.
The Fresh Food Initiative participants have ten farmers markets scheduled to-date, beginning on June 26th, at the Unitarian Universalist Church. WIC vouchers will be accepted. The summer schedule can be found on the website at catherinekasperplace.org
Second Event
A second event is being held in conjunction with the Great American Cleanup on Saturday, May 21, at Autumn Woods Apartments. Volunteers will be on hand to construct 100 raised beds and 22 plant stands with residents of the apartments. The beds will be donated to any resident who sign up by Wednesday, May 28th at the complex office. Residents are asked to assist in setting up their garden.
Beginning at 8:30am, teams will be assigned to a section of the apartment complex to assemble, fill and place gardens. The project is designed to provide fresh food for every resident, and includes several vegetable plants as part of the installation.
Catherine Kasper Place is a 501c3organization sponsored by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ to continue their legacy of serving the poor in northeast Indiana which began in 1868.