Waynesboro community garden in need of volunteer manager

WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) – One Waynesboro organization is preparing to grow more than just vegetables.

Embrace Waynesboro is getting ready for another planting season at its community garden, a space that provides fresh food for folks in the area. But, in the wake of recent federal funding cuts, the group says it’s looking for a volunteer garden manager to step up and help lead the effort, further supporting the garden’s growing impact in the community.

“For 24 years, I worked for the family nutrition program with Virginia Cooperative Extension, and that was a position that was funded through the SNAP program, as a SNAP education program, teaching families to grow their own food, cook it and feed their families well. In this past year, all the funding for that particular program has been cut,” said Kaye Shaner, a certified community health worker and director of the Community Assistance Network with Embrace Centers for Community.

She said the program allowed her to put 10 hours a week into gardens, but with funding cuts, she ended up taking an early retirement and took a step back from the position.

One Waynesboro organization is preparing to grow more than just vegetables… ‘Embrace Waynesboro’ is getting ready for another planting season at its community garden, a space that provides fresh food for folks in the area.(Kennedy scales)

Shaner said the volunteer garden manager could be a home gardener who can help manage the volunteers and oversee the work that goes on at the garden. For those interested, Shaner said there’s no experience required except for just wanting to help your community.

“We don’t need anyone with any special education, special degrees — just someone who’s willing to put their time into the community and help the community that we have, that’s willing to work as a leadership person, so that they can show them what needs to be planted, when it needs to be planted, weeded, harvested. Those types of things,” Shaner said.

She said they could use an extra set of hands now more than ever.

“We have a greenhouse that has been funded through grants in past years where we can start our own seeds. We don’t have the manpower to do that right now,” Shaner said. “We, at this point in the year, normally have enriched our beds with compost and our tilling and planting spring crops. We don’t have the manpower to do that right now without someone who will volunteer to take that leadership role.”

Last year, there were over 3,500 visits to the garden, which distributed over 5,500 pounds of fresh produce. Shaner said the garden has made a large impact on the community and is the reason why she’s so dedicated to finding someone to help keep things moving.

While impacting the community, Shaner said the garden has brought people of different backgrounds together. For neighbors from Mexico or Asia who like cooking with certain types of vegetables not often found in grocery stores, Shaner said they were able to find the seeds and grow them at the garden.

Some of the recipients of the garden’s harvest include volunteers, local preschool students who pick vegetables and learn about the garden, neighbors and more.

Shaner said the manager position would be eight to 10 hours a week at most.

“It does not have to be every day. It can be twice a week. It can be three times a week. And basically, it’s maintaining, making sure that our rainwater irrigation system is running and watering our plants,” Shaner said. “It’s checking on seedlings that then we may have started in the greenhouse. It’s making sure that volunteers have gotten in and weeded amongst the crops and rotating and planning where the crops will be planted.”