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St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church’s new community garden is up and running.

Around three months ago, church members of St. Theresa Roman Catholic Church, part of the Central Virginia Catholic Cluster Catholic Diocese of Richmond, came together with the idea to raise a garden with fresh vegetables to give out in the food pantry. The food pantry feeds around 80 clients in the surrounding area.

According to Doreen Hines, who runs the food pantry, they greatly appreciate the donations of vegetables they receive from places such as Walmart and Food Lion. However, the vegetables usually go bad too fast and are covered in pesticides. Now, the food pantry can give away fresh and pesticide free produce to those in need.

“If it’s not something we would eat, why would we give it away to our clients?” Hines asked.

The garden is currently growing crook necked squash, regular squash, zucchini, bean sprouts, cucumbers and tomatoes, with some honeydew on the way.

According to Hines, this is something the entire church can get involved in to help the community. The priests take turns watering the garden when on campus and families bring their children throughout the week to keep it up too while learning about gardening and sharing with the community. 

“I am pretty proud,” said Hines. “The garden is working pretty well so far.”