WINDSOR — Gleaning is the practice of collecting leftover crops from fields after the harvest. The Bible urges gleanings be left for the needy and the stranger.
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 311 Sixth St., maintains a Community Gleaning Garden as one of three outreach programs to provide free food assistance for neighbors and strangers.
The 12 raised garden beds border a sidewalk behind the church, allowing easy access for people who park their vehicles at the curb and for passersby.
“There’s a gentleman with a walker who comes by twice a day and takes a little something to take home,” said Kari Seay, a church member who volunteers her time to supervise the gardens. “We had a gal who stops by and gets a little bit of basil each day on the way home.”
Planting the beds began in late March with “early spring things — peas, lettuce and spinach,” Seay said.
People go through a buffet line to fill their plates at a recent Red Door Lunch in St. Alban’s parish hall. (Ed Otte/For the Greeley Tribune)Through the summer, small Harvest Now signs were placed by patches of ripe produce. People brought bags and picked beets, green beans, carrots, potatoes, chard, arugula, eggplant, sage, dill, chives and basil.
“Tomatoes and peppers are the most popular,” Seay said. The gardens have grown into a vital resource as more people face financial insecurities.
“People think of Windsor as wealthy, but we have a lot of people who need help,” she said. “We get a lot of letters from people who say we help them get through the summer.
“We’re very community oriented. The church is committed to taking care of our fellow man.”
In addition its on-site programs that help people struggling with food insecurity, the church contributes to the Windsor-Severance Food Pantry and distributes grocery store gift cards at Thanksgiving.
From left: Nita Johl, Judy Bullard, Phyllis Cook, Susan Grande and Susan Steiner stand in the parish hall kitchen. The team prepared the Red Door Lunch. (Ed Otte/For the Greeley Tribune)The church’s congregation numbers 152 people. Its roots go back to 1908, according to Father Bill Stanton, “when a group of people met and started raising funds. Three years later, they bought land and it was built in bits and pieces.”
The garden is such a fixture in the neighborhood that people walking by do more than take vegetables.
“We have five or six church members who work in the garden. Last spring, we were getting the beds ready. Two people were just walking by, and they helped us mulch,” Seay said.
Father Stanton joined St. Alban’s in 2018 and became involved in the garden project.
“When I started, there was no grass back there and I thought it would be a good spot for a community garden,” he said. “Well, they had been talking for a while about doing that, so we started with two boxes. Through a grant, we purchased more and now we have the raised beds.”
Seay said four new raised beds were donated this spring.
In addition to the fertilizer and soil expenses in the spring, “we had a huge expense this year because we put in a drip system,” she said. “That was a big help.”
Next to the garden is the Free Food Pantry, the church’s other outdoor food assistance program.
The Free Food Pantry at St. Alban’s has non-perishable items, feminine hygiene products and toiletries. The pantry is stocked four times a week. (Ed Otte/For the Greeley Tribune)A variety of non-perishable items ranging from mac and cheese and oatmeal to single-serve bags of dried rice and beans fill the shelves. Feminine hygiene products and toiletries are also available.
Students from nearby Mead Middle School and Tozer Elementary School take granola bars on the way home. More than afternoon snacks are taken from the small, red structure.
“The pantry is filled four times a week,” said Nita Johl, the pantry contact person. “It was filled on Wednesday. Thursday, it was empty. Typical 24-hour example. It is depleted.”
A sign on the pantry states, “Take what you need. Leave what you are able.”
“It’s important that people understand that it isn’t just a place to take food,” Johl said. “Food can be donated.”
Red Door Lunches is the church’s oldest food aid program and the one that has experienced the most change. Since 2008, it has provided free home-cooked meals and, just as importantly, opportunities for social contact.
“They were Red Door Dinners at the time and several churches in Windsor provided meals every week until COVID when it had to be shut down,” Father Stanton said.
When health restrictions were lifted, the other churches decided to discontinue their participation.
“We offered to deliver meals to people but they said no, no, no, we like to get out and be in the community,” he said. “They couldn’t afford to go out to restaurants. They wanted us to do lunches once a week here.”
Although the church has teams of people available to provide the lunches, the weekly request was too much work for the volunteers.
“We started doing it twice a month and decided we needed help because the team members are older,” Father Stanton said. “We reached out to churches in the community for help and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stepped up. We do the second Saturday of the month, and they do lunch on the fourth Saturday.
“The lunches will continue now with the Mormons helping.”
The meals became lunches because “a lot of the people who serve the food and who come here can’t drive at night,” said Phyllis Cook, who was on the original team that started the Red Door meals.
The lunches vary, depending on what team members want to cook. Casseroles, spaghetti, Mexican and chicken are often served, she said.
The lunch on a recent Saturday was scheduled to begin at noon. At 11:30 a.m., the volunteers heard a knock on the parish hall front door. The volunteers let in six early arrivals so they could sit at tables.
The menu featured pork loin, scalloped potatoes, salad, fruit salad, home-baked bread, home-grown sliced peaches, brownies, cake and ice cream.
“Desserts are popular,” Cook said. “They’ll talk about the desserts they had the last time they were here.”
All of the dishes were prepared at home by the volunteers — “it’s easier to make it and take it”— and placed in the refrigerator or kept warm in the small kitchen at the back of the parish hall.
The food was set out in a buffet line. Serving dishes were refilled as people went through the line.
When they were seated at the tables, the volunteers filled their plates and joined them.
“We want to sit with them during the lunch and talk with them and learn how they’re doing,” Johl said. “We can identify if they have other needs, like clothing.”
After the meal, leftovers were put in takeout containers and given to people before they walked out of the parish hall.
— Ed Otte is a former editor of the Greeley Tribune and a former executive director of the Colorado Press Association.
Twelve raised beds in the Community Gleaning Garden at St. Alban’s are easily accessible for people walking past the church. (Ed Otte/For the Greeley Tribune)Hence then, the article about st alban s episcopal church in windsor helps fight hunger with garden pantry was published today ( ) and is available on GreeleyTribune ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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