Emmanuel Church has completed a new pollinator garden designed to bolster the church’s year-round efforts to provide fresh food to neighbors in need while supporting local ecosystems.
The garden, located beside the church’s newly constructed accessible Community Bridge entrance, features plantings that support bees, butterflies and birds — pollinators essential to agriculture and global food security.
The addition expands Emmanuel’s existing food initiatives, which include collecting and delivering nonperishable items to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, operating a hydroponic gardening program and maintaining a community vegetable garden.
Emmanuel Church expands community food programs with a new pollinator garden (Emmanuel Church)
Over the last five years, the church has donated more than 7,700 pounds of nonperishable food, laundry supplies and toiletries to the center, along with fresh hydroponically grown greens. This year alone, Emmanuel has provided more than 1,600 pounds of nonperishable goods and hundreds of servings of fresh greens.
“We are excited about this new addition to our commitment to the community and to the food programs that support our neighbors,” said the Rev. Della Wager Wells, rector of Emmanuel Church. “Our church was built to create a place where all members of the community can thrive, and we are proud to continue living out that mission today.”
The church’s hydroponic gardening program — three growing beds totaling 24 linear feet — produces nutrient-rich greens year-round, including during winter months when fresh produce is scarce. The programs support Emmanuel’s broader food ministry, including the “Soup’s On” community dinner.
The pollinator garden includes a small sitting area and the Foundation Fountain, crafted from one of Emmanuel’s original 1902 steps.
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