At Ohio’s USDA Service Center in Stark County, employees have been meeting during lunch each week to plan for a People’s Garden. Their efforts have taken shape recently as employees constructed raised vegetable beds near the USDA Service Center. Farm Service Agency (FSA) staffers, along with Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Soil and Water Conservation District and Rural Development, volunteered their time to plant vegetables for donation to local food organizations.
Local Master Gardener Jeanne Quartz, supplied technical guidance for the creation of an optimal vegetable plot. Service center employees donated the lumber, screws and plastic mesh for the elevated beds. Ohio State University joined in the effort by donating vegetable plants, seeds, compost and peat. The construction of the raised vegetable garden frames was accomplished by NRCS employee Jon Reedstrom and his son Taylor, a Boy Scout troup member. The actual planting of the vegetables was a joint effort by personnel from all the service center agencies during a predetermined lunch hour.
With the plants in the ground, mother nature has taken over and supplied ample rain to get the People’s Garden in Stark County off to a good start. The fruits of this effort will become evident over time and will find its way to local food banks and soup kitchens.
At the Stark County Service Center other joint projects include a rain garden and a butterfly garden.
—by Mike Kaufman FSA Public Affairs Specialist
