Oakwood Community Garden harvest

Devon, Kayla, and Shayna Missildine help clean and bag the harvest from Oakwood’s Project Save-A-Life Community Garden. Photo by Melissa Missildine It's harvest time at Oakwood's Project Save-A-Life Community Garden. This garden was planted by children in the community for the sole purpose of distribution to the senior citizens and shutins of the Oakwood area.

The garden was blessed with radishes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelons, okra, squash, and two kinds of tomatoes. Most of the squash, okra, cucumbers, and radishes have been picked. The produce was divided into bags with the names of the recipients. Some of the children who helped plant the garden were on hand to help with the picking, cleaning, bagging, and ultimately the delivery of the produce around town. There is still watermelon, cantaloupe, and a ton of tomatoes to be har- vested over the next couple of weeks and also distributed.

Pastor Larry Allen of the Miracle Church and CEO of The Spirit of God Ministries, Inc. says this may be the first attempt at a community garden, and things may not have gone according to plan, but, he couldn't be happier about the results. The appreciation from the recipients reassured him that he was on the right track and that there is a need for this and other services like it in Oakwood. The C.H.A.N.G.E. Youth Center, one of the outreach programs of the Spirit of God Ministries, sponsored this first garden attempt. There are already plans in the making for a fall garden to continue the good work that has begun.