Community Gardens
A Call
Community Gardening – It’s the Sheepfold Way!
Gardening together is an integral practice for human beings living in communities. We have become insular in many ways, living in a competitive dominant culture that values reward for hard work. This has been reflected in the evolution of community gardening over the centuries.
In the middle ages, the common was preserved by wise landlords to give the inhabitants of their communities places where the goods produced could be shared equitably. It provided a peaceful community atmosphere where food could be grown, and animals could be husbanded without the rancour caused by one villager having more than another. It kept the peace and allowed for the peasants to maintain their holdings so that the landlord got his due.
Over the years, with the rise of industry and currency, many practices gave way to a more competitive, top-down way of managing local economies. “Cottage industry” put the means of production in the private houses of residents of a locality and initiated a sense of competitiveness for scarce income. The common was in many cases removed, and laws were put in place so that people could not share land in the village, but it was owned by one person or another. Use of the land then became an economic transaction, requiring currency and the ability to fulfill terms of law and policy. But human beings have always wanted to work together to feed their communities!
In more recent times, various forms of community gardens have emerged. During the wars of the Twentieth Century, Victory gardens were promoted. Individuals, on their own land, grew food to share as part of their contribution to the war effort. In many cases, community was taken for granted because everyone was working toward a common end! In the current context, we see this type of garden emerging here and there, especially after Michelle Obama planted one at the White House.
In England, arable land is often not found adjacent to the dwellings of community members. In England, allotment gardening is taken for granted! The individual purchases or leases a plot on a community acreage and works “side by side” with neighbours to grow their own food. This provides an atmosphere of mentorship and support that can be sustaining for community. But it is still, to some degree, competitive.
Other forms of community gardening emerged as a way of “sticking it to the man,” in the “back to the earth” movement of the 70’s and in urban renewal that came from grass roots organizations trying to reclaim healthy community in the midst of urban poverty. Some community gardening programs are covenants between communities and local farmers, to supply and consume within the covenant.
Addressing food insecurity might be the biggest groundswell toward community change that we have seen in recent times. People really want to help communities that they love and feeding one another is a very fundamental way of doing this. Charitable efforts abound to this end – food box programs, and food bank support falls within this type of assistance. These are meant to be necessary stopgap measures while we examine the problem of food insecurity and try to eradicate it from our communities. Community gardening is an action-based approach which attempts to change some of the foundational problems of local food insecurity. It welcomes people into new relationships, which value the individual. It allows a community to self-sort the relative strengths of its inhabitants, by welcoming the gifts and the desire for learning of its members. It restores confidence, teaches skills, and provides for the nutritional needs of those who participate.
Jesus continuously reminds us that we are, when we enter God’s economy, joining a counter-cultural, non-competitive, compassion-based approach to community living that turns all the old suppositions on their heads. Competitive, adversarial and triumphalist approaches to community life are fading away, and being swept away as we address the damage done by patriarchal systems of governing, most notably the colonialism of the post- “Enlightenment” age. Jesus valued the person as the person they were, not what could be made from them. People are not profit, or canon fodder, or disposable. All people – regardless of colour, culture, sexual orientation or gender identity, illness or perceived weakness, all are equally valued, and all can contribute to the growth and harmony of the community.
So, we re-examine the common – what it was, and what is can be for the health of the community of twenty-first century. And for many churches, seeking to “green sacred spaces,” it is connecting us with ways of feeding ourselves and each other so that we invite all the gifts of a community to work together toward a common end.
The community garden of the twenty-first century is evolving to be a place of inclusion and asset-based community development. It can be a place of wellness and safety, where mental health (spiritual health) needs are met while we work to meet our nutritional needs. People are given a sense of power over food insecurity that helps with developing self-esteem. All these things fit well within the “way” of healing and hope that is the Jesus way!
We are all stuck at home right now. But community gardens have been ruled essential services, so they can go forward if physical distancing is maintained. And we are still those people who have been called to action by a God who longs for the world of abundance that was created to be shared with everyone. So let’s try something, church! Let’s see if this is what God has been calling us to do for our community!
Interested individuals should respond to this email or contact Jane 705-794-7304 to indicate their interest.
Points of discussion would include things like: where to locate; what type of gardens; water sources etc.
Let’s be part of what our communities are doing, collaborating to make things better for everyone!
Community Gardening – It’s the Sheepfold Way!
Gardening together is an integral practice for human beings living in communities. We have become insular in many ways, living in a competitive dominant culture that values reward for hard work. This has been reflected in the evolution of community gardening over the centuries.
In the middle ages, the common was preserved by wise landlords to give the inhabitants of their communities places where the goods produced could be shared equitably. It provided a peaceful community atmosphere where food could be grown, and animals could be husbanded without the rancour caused by one villager having more than another. It kept the peace and allowed for the peasants to maintain their holdings so that the landlord got his due.
Over the years, with the rise of industry and currency, many practices gave way to a more competitive, top-down way of managing local economies. “Cottage industry” put the means of production in the private houses of residents of a locality and initiated a sense of competitiveness for scarce income. The common was in many cases removed, and laws were put in place so that people could not share land in the village, but it was owned by one person or another. Use of the land then became an economic transaction, requiring currency and the ability to fulfill terms of law and policy. But human beings have always wanted to work together to feed their communities!
In more recent times, various forms of community gardens have emerged. During the wars of the Twentieth Century, Victory gardens were promoted. Individuals, on their own land, grew food to share as part of their contribution to the war effort. In many cases, community was taken for granted because everyone was working toward a common end! In the current context, we see this type of garden emerging here and there, especially after Michelle Obama planted one at the White House.
In England, arable land is often not found adjacent to the dwellings of community members. In England, allotment gardening is taken for granted! The individual purchases or leases a plot on a community acreage and works “side by side” with neighbours to grow their own food. This provides an atmosphere of mentorship and support that can be sustaining for community. But it is still, to some degree, competitive.
Other forms of community gardening emerged as a way of “sticking it to the man,” in the “back to the earth” movement of the 70’s and in urban renewal that came from grass roots organizations trying to reclaim healthy community in the midst of urban poverty. Some community gardening programs are covenants between communities and local farmers, to supply and consume within the covenant.
Addressing food insecurity might be the biggest groundswell toward community change that we have seen in recent times. People really want to help communities that they love and feeding one another is a very fundamental way of doing this. Charitable efforts abound to this end – food box programs, and food bank support falls within this type of assistance. These are meant to be necessary stopgap measures while we examine the problem of food insecurity and try to eradicate it from our communities. Community gardening is an action-based approach which attempts to change some of the foundational problems of local food insecurity. It welcomes people into new relationships, which value the individual. It allows a community to self-sort the relative strengths of its inhabitants, by welcoming the gifts and the desire for learning of its members. It restores confidence, teaches skills, and provides for the nutritional needs of those who participate.
Jesus continuously reminds us that we are, when we enter God’s economy, joining a counter-cultural, non-competitive, compassion-based approach to community living that turns all the old suppositions on their heads. Competitive, adversarial and triumphalist approaches to community life are fading away, and being swept away as we address the damage done by patriarchal systems of governing, most notably the colonialism of the post- “Enlightenment” age. Jesus valued the person as the person they were, not what could be made from them. People are not profit, or canon fodder, or disposable. All people – regardless of colour, culture, sexual orientation or gender identity, illness or perceived weakness, all are equally valued, and all can contribute to the growth and harmony of the community.
So, we re-examine the common – what it was, and what is can be for the health of the community of twenty-first century. And for many churches, seeking to “green sacred spaces,” it is connecting us with ways of feeding ourselves and each other so that we invite all the gifts of a community to work together toward a common end.
The community garden of the twenty-first century is evolving to be a place of inclusion and asset-based community development. It can be a place of wellness and safety, where mental health (spiritual health) needs are met while we work to meet our nutritional needs. People are given a sense of power over food insecurity that helps with developing self-esteem. All these things fit well within the “way” of healing and hope that is the Jesus way!
We are all stuck at home right now. But community gardens have been ruled essential services, so they can go forward if physical distancing is maintained. And we are still those people who have been called to action by a God who longs for the world of abundance that was created to be shared with everyone. So let’s try something, church! Let’s see if this is what God has been calling us to do for our community!
Interested individuals should respond to this email or contact Jane 705-794-7304 to indicate their interest.
Points of discussion would include things like: where to locate; what type of gardens; water sources etc.
Let’s be part of what our communities are doing, collaborating to make things better for everyone!