Community Garden Producing Fresh Food

BELLVUE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —Community gardens are a great way to learn important skills, while also providing food for those in need.

“the community aspect is this organization, that’s really what we’re building on.” Said Maggie Wawner, Community Gardens Coordinator.

The Hunger Coalition has been serving the city of Bellevue for seven years. The organization’s mission is to help build a healthy community through good food.

They have two greenhouses that work year-round, growing things like peppers, tomatoes, and melons. And all this goes to many places within the community.

“It can end up in our healthy food pantry, out in food boxes to community members, in our community meals, that are served on Mondays and Thursdays, and majority of our food that is grown here in our greenhouses go to our volunteers.”

Most produce we eat is transported across the country and according to the National Center for Appropriate Technology, can cause it to lose nutrients.

However, that’s one issue the Hunger Coalition doesn’t have to worry about.

“There’s no trucking of this food going anywhere, this food is going right into this community, people that live five minutes away, twenty minutes away, thirty minutes away.”

The group mostly uses volunteers to keep care of their community garden in Bellevue, along with another one up in Hailey called the Hope Garden.

“Bringing people together of all sorts of ages and demographics and specifically here in the garden. We have kids as young as two that come through to learn about growing food and then we have seniors that come and volunteer regularly that are well into 90s.”

If you would like to help with the Hunger Coalition, you can go to their website at https://www.thehungercoalition.org/