Feeding people and riding bicycles

My husband published the letter we are sending out to raise support for our community garden fundraiser on his blog a few days ago. I'm way behind with this blog, but I wanted to share with my readers as well so I am going to post his letter here too. I will be driving the support car for this ride. I am so proud of how hard all of our riders have been training! 

Dear friends, family, and partners in ministry,

I am writing to you because I am involved in an exciting ministry with 

The Rock / La Roca’s Community Garden and Hunger Ministries and it

needs your help.

The Rock / La Roca’s Community Garden is in its fifth year and is in the

process of growing. In fact, it has seen growth in each year of its

existence. This growth has enabled us to produce larger and larger 

quantities of fresh produce that feeds the hungry in our community. 

Within the next year we have the opportunity to quadruple the amount

of food that we are able to produce.  

The Rock / La Roca’s Community Garden and Hunger Ministries currently

serves over two hundred families in the community. This is done through

the Monday night dinner that is offered, our summer feeding program

for children, and the baskets of fresh food we send home with Monday 

night diners and deliver to shut ins and others in need. This year we also 

have the opportunity to partner with Arlington Elementary School and help

them establish  their own garden.

The Rock / La Roca’s Community Garden and Hunger Ministries also partners

with gardeners, local farmers, and the Lexington Farmer's Market in order to 

provide huge amounts of fresh food to the hungry. These partnerships include 

organizations like Faith Feeds (http://faithfeedslex.org/about/), a local

gleaning group that collects donations from local farmers and distributes them

to emergency food agencies; InFeed (http://infeed.wordpress.com/about/), a 

group whose mission is to use vacant urban land to grow food for the hungry; 

and Seadleaf (http://seedleaf.typepad.com/), a group whose mission is to give 

people a chance to grow food, to cultivate an appreciation for healthy, local, 

nutritious food, and to promote availability of such food by installing and 

maintaining gardens in and around Lexington.

As The Rock / La Roca’s Community Garden has grown over the years so have the 

costs of operating it. The greatest current needs are money for equipment and 

infrastructure. The biggest obstacle in the production of food in the garden is 

water. We simply do not have adequate access to water nor do we have 

adequate irrigation equipment. This limits what can be grown, when it can be 

grown, and where it can be grown.

We are looking to add a water line, tap and meter, and a drip irrigation 

system to the lot that we use. This will allow us to maximize our yield 

of fresh healthy fruits and vegetables for the community while responsibly 

using water, our most precious resource on the planet. The cost of adding 

this will be approximately $4000. We also have other equipment and 

infrastructure costs that we need to raise money for, including tools 

(rakes, hoes, shovels, etc.) for site preparation, seeding and harvest; harvest 

bins for carrying produce from the field; stakes and twine for supporting 

pepper and tomato plants; and canning equipment for processing surplus 

harvest for use after the growing season.

Finally, we would like to be able to hire some teenagers from the 

community to help with the garden this summer. This will allow for them 

to earn some pocket money, stay out of trouble and gain some work 

experience that will aid them in the future.

As a ministry that works primarily with the urban poor we do not have 

the financial resources at present to fulfill our vision for this ministry 

and to accomplish what we believe that God is calling us to do. This is 

where you come in.

In order to raise money and awareness for this cause some of us who 

work with the garden and feeding ministries have decided to ride our 

bicycles to this year’s Kentucky United Methodist Annual Conference. 

On Tuesday, June 7 we will gather at The Rock / La Roca United Methodist 

Church in North Lexington and mount our bicycles. We will ride from there 

to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky. That’s 

over 80 miles of riding.

I ask that you partner with us to achieve our goals. Whether through prayer 

or financial support as a sponsor, I would like you to please join us. If you 

would like to be a prayer partner by all means do so. You can start praying 

right now! All of riders, including myself are currently training and covet 

your prayers for our safety and a successful ride. If you would like to make 

a donation to this ministry, please send your check (made payable to 

The Rock / La Roca UMC and designated “Community Garden Fund”) to:

The Rock / La Roca United Methodist Church
1015 North Limestone
Lexington, KY 40505

I thank you for prayerful consideration and for your support.

Sincerely,

Tom Baker