Community Garden
You may have noticed that things are changing in the open space on the East side of the playground. The Community Garden group is creating a garden. After much deliberation and input, we have named this project The Shared Earth Project: an interfaith garden by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City, Congregation Beth Ohr, Congregation Tikkun Olam and Netiya.
Netiya is a Jewish network that advances urban agriculture in synagogues, schools, and non-profit organizations in Los Angeles. For more information on Netiya, visit their Facebook page.
The garden will grow food for people who are food insecure in our congregation, our neighborhood, and beyond. It is being designed as a spiritual place as well, the design taking the shape of a labyrinth or a mandala.
On March 19, 2012, we were joined by students from Cornell University on an alternative Spring Break, organized by the Jewish Farm School, who helped us out with the next phase of the garden. Rev. Mike gave an inspirational talk about service and the opportunity we all have to work together. These students were wonderful—they were tremendously helpful (read lots of energy), funny, concerned about their impact on this Earth and excited to be in Los Angeles. We laid the perimeter of the beds with recycled concrete, planted over 15 stone fruit trees, built a compost bin, and started laying the compost and topsoil in the beds. The students felt tremendously fulfilled to have participated in this process and are looking forward to seeing pictures of the completed garden.
The two Jewish Congregations, Netiya and the UUCSC group will be working to raise cash to purchase materials and to solicit donated materials to get this done. They will be applying for grants and asking for donations of time, materials, and money. We need all the resources and help we can get.
The community garden has evolved into something different from what we originally imagined, but we believe that it is more meaningful and a powerful message of what we can accomplish together. In our opinion, this project could not better reflect our church’s mission statement.
Interested?
We need volunteers who would be willing to work in the garden on an ongoing basis. We need two people one day per week. If you can help, or if you’d like to be on the mailing list as a volunteer, send an email to Jeanne McConnell (you’ll find her email address in the church directory) or call her at (818) 232-7388.
The garden will be a beautiful statement about our values and mission.
Photo Gallery
Start Slide Show(Click on an image to enlarge)
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