Planning your church refugee garden
Are you interested in beginning your own church refugee garden? We’re sharing these documents created by Arrive Ministries to support your endeavor and help address some frequently asked questions.
Contact a local refugee organization or Catholic Charities to see what programs may already exist and to begin developing relationships with refugees in your area.
Church Garden Models contains a listing of the types of refugee gardens that have been established here in the Twin Cities. There are a number of different ways churches can engage in gardens; you may even come up with new ideas of your own!
Church Gardening Goals provides a list of reasons for churches to create gardens for refugees. These reasons are some of the ones cited by those hosting church gardens and refugee gardeners and are helpful in enlisting support of your local church board and membership.
Church Gardens Sample Guidelines is a list of rules based on First Evangelical Free Church (Maplewood) Harvest Community Gardens model. Many area churches develop a similar list and provide it to gardeners at the start of the season, usually as a part of gardener orientation. First Evangelical Free Church has many years experience of conducting a community garden on a large scale. In 2014 they had more than 1200 plots!
Matters to Consider is a document that has been compiled through evaluations and discussions with existing church gardens. These are their suggestions to others – things they felt everyone should be aware of before beginning a garden project.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ~ Gardening, Food & Faith
Garden Safe, Garden Well Guide: Jumpstart your community garden with & customize with your own local resources in minutes.
Food Sovereignty for All Handbook: Create a community garden or other faith-based initiative using this resource the for guidance.
Nexus Guide: How Food, Water and Energy are Connected: Discover the hidden connections between food, water and energy in your everyday life, in the economy, and in society as a whole.
Resources: Successful Twin Cities MN Church Gardens
First Free Evangelical Church, Maplewood
International Outreach Church, Burnsville
Guardian Angels Catholic Church, Oakdale
Crossroads Alliance Church, Brooklyn Park
Karmel Covenant Church, Princeton
Peace Lutheran Church, Lauderdale
Resources: Technical Assistance and Networking
University of Minnesota Extension Gardening
Resources: Websites
Creating a faith-based community garden (Sustainable Traditions)
Faith and Food: Biblical Perspectives (United Methodist Church)
Food and Faith blog (Presbyterian Hunger Program)
Starting a faith-based community garden (Godspace blog)
Resources: Books
Farming as a spiritual discipline
The art of the commonplace: The agrarian essays of Wendell Berry
Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening