Representatives from WoodmenLife Georgia Jurisdiction break ground at Golden Harvest’s new garden plot, which will house 12 raised beds to grow produce for meals at The Master’s Table Soup Kitchen plus a greenhouse and grape arbor funded by WoodmenLife.
Along a downtown stretch of Walton Way sits a brand-new garden plot, its tilled earth rich against a backdrop of concrete buildings. This new extension of The Master’s Table Garden adds 12 raised beds, a greenhouse, and a grape arbor to the garden’s capacity.
“Our garden expansion efforts all come back to increasing access to nutrition,” says Ashley Gutierrez Siler, Golden Harvest’s Project Facilitator. “The more we grow the more people can eat locally and eat organically – and that means more nutrition is going into their bodies which will help them lead a better life.”
Representatives from WoodmenLife Georgia Jurisdiction broke ground at the new garden with a ‘first planting,’ placing grape vines at the arbor’s foot in lieu of a traditional ribbon cutting.
WoodmenLife Georgia Jurisdiction funded construction of the arbor and greenhouse, giving an additional gift that will provide 66,000 meals.
“Being that 1 in 8 Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from, we knew that this is something that we want to be a part of,” says Lisa Thomas, WoodmenLife’s Community Outreach Manager.
A second new greenhouse graces the original Master’s Table Garden plot. Both greenhouses were built primarily with
materials recycled from a greenhouse
donated by Mercy Ministries. With help from Augusta Locally Grown and local volunteers, the greenhouse was broken down and rebuilt into two new structures.
The greenhouses will allow Golden Harvest to start seedlings in the winter for spring planting, and grow produce year-round for soup kitchen meals.
The new garden plot and greenhouses are the most recent in a series of expansions at the Master’s Table Garden which include an herb garden, a pollinator garden, a small flock of chickens, an aquaponics tank, fruit trees, a mushroom pit and a small composting operation.
