By Tracy McCormick-Dishman
What began as a small plot roughly two years ago has blossomed into an 800-pound annual harvest that feeds Nassau County families in need, all thanks to dedicated volunteers and a finance manager with a green thumb.
The Barnabas Center’s community garden, nestled behind the organization’s food pantry at 1303 Jasmine St. in Fernandina Beach, has become what Development Director and Communications Director Nicola Barnack calls “a labor of love.”
“The first year we had the garden we only had 70 pounds,” Barnack said during a recent tour of the facility. “But we ended up last year with 800 pounds of vegetables.”
The garden started small but transformed quickly with grants from Florida Blue Foundation and other donors. Finance manager Richard Middlekauff oversees operations, with approximately eight volunteers arriving daily to tend the plants, Barnack said.
The garden has evolved beyond basic vegetable production. About a year and a half ago, volunteers installed a solar-powered rainwater collection system with two large containers to ensure sustainable irrigation.
“Let’s figure out how to collect rainwater,” Barnack said of the decision. “So now we have a rainwater collection system and it’s completely solar powered.”
The newest addition, a greenhouse officially completed about two weeks ago, will allow year-round growing.
The garden’s bounty goes directly to Barnabas Center clients who visit the food pantry Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to noon. Along with pantry staples like peanut butter, clients receive fresh produce harvested from the garden.
“We’re providing anything from the garden that we are harvesting. In the summer it’s a little busier with melons and things like that, but there are often herbs and peas,” Barnack said.
The garden has also inspired clients to grow their own food through the Seeds of Hope Community Garden grow bag distribution program. Supported by the Florida Blue Foundation, the initiative provides families with everything needed to create a homegrown salad, including seeds and starter plants such as basil, tomatoes, parsley, peppers, onions, radishes, mixed lettuce, arugula, romaine, carrots and spinach.
Each of the four different grow bags comes with step-by-step instructions designed for gardeners of all experience levels.
“We were giving them out to the clients and teach them how to use and how to grow their own,” Barnack said.
The grow bags are distributed at multiple community locations, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Fernandina Beach, Northeast Florida Fairgrounds in Callahan, and the Barnabas Center Food Pantry.
The initiative proved so popular that Barnack started her own container garden using an old cooler on wheels she purchased from the Barnabas New to You resale store, filled with marigolds, peppers, tomatoes, parsley, thyme and rosemary.
“The Seeds of Hope bags helped me feel like anybody could do this,” she said.
The garden features a handicap-accessible path designed to accommodate all volunteers and visitors. Citrus trees, including satsumas, dot the landscape alongside current plantings of lettuce, arugula, carrots and snap peas.
“It’s unique. It’s something different that everyone really has gotten involved in,” Barnack said.
The Seeds of Hope program will also expand to Barnabas Center’s new West Nassau location in Callahan, where the organization is renovating a 2,000-square-foot space to provide health services and food assistance to western Nassau County residents. More than 400 grow bags were distributed last spring at food distributions, and the program will continue this fall at the Callahan site.
“People not only get fresh vegetables, but they can learn how to grow them,” Barnabas Center President and CEO Jamie Reynolds said.
Barnabas Center provides help and hope to individuals and families in need throughout Nassau County to improve their stability, health and well-being.
For more information, visit barnabasnassau.org or call 904-261-7000.
tdishman@nassaunewsline.net
