Community Garden to benefit the West Chester Food Cupboard

St. Francis supports the West Chester Food Cupboard both by collecting shelf-stable grocery items and by growing produce in our community garden on the church property. We work with the Food Cupboard to determine what produce their clients prefer. The Food Cupboard serves 600 families a month.

We are one of 125 organizations in this program started and supported by the Chester Country Food Bank. They put on seminars for gardeners and supply seedlings and seeds for us at no charge.

There are six raised beds where we grow three crops per bed per season. Our growing season starts with seedlings and seeds in April and ends in late October. Crops are rotated among the beds.

We have grown and donated hundreds pounds of produce: radishes, six types of peppers, green beans, cucumbers, beets, potatoes, lettuces, parsley, dill, Swiss chard, tomatoes, onions, egglant, spinach and salad turnips. In addition, hundreds of pounds of food donations have been brought to church by parishioners.

Volunteers to help with the garden are always needed to weed and water and harvest. Volunteers work in the garden for one hour a week on Wednesdays at 4 pm. See you in the garden!