Garden Stories

21 Mar 2012

We are growing!

Serve Elyria FGI is really Lorain County FGI. This year, we will deliver gardens to nearly every city and township in the county. Our goal this year is to give away 1,000 gardens on May 19, 2012. We have more organizations and more people involved than ever. In fact, this year we are going to run 2 simultaneous distribution locations! One will be at our usual spot on Washington Avenue in Downtown Elyria. The other will be at Rock Pile Garden Center in Avon.

Doubling our distribution is possible in large part, because Church of the Open Door just opened another campus in Avon Lake just down the road from Rock Pile. FGI is excited to grow along with Open door!

If you are interested in helping serve families gardens and the gospel, we’d love to have your help on May 19th.

21 Mar 2012

Expansion and Press

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FGI is expanding! Please join us in welcoming Columbus and Cleveland to the FGI family! LoveCbusFGI is getting some great press! Click here to read more in Columbus Local News. Also, BuckeyeFGI in Cleveland is coming together well. It is exciting to see more cities join in to serve people with gardens and the gospel.

Things for our Lorain County FGI are ramping up as well. We already started filling Gardensoxx, and requests for garden are coming in. We hope to give 1,000 gardens away on May 19, 2012.

We would love to have your help! Visit any of our FGI sites to donate, or support our national program launch by donating here.

Also, have a look at this video from Rich and Shalla with LoveCbusFGI:

07 Jul 2011

Garden Progress

Tags: Families, Gardensoxx, Growing
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Gardens at Faith House in Lorain produce fresh food for families.

Last week The Family Garden Initiative began reaching out to garden recipients to find out how their gardens were growing. We were even able to visit a few gardens to see their progress. Faith House in Lorain, a housing program for single parent, homeless families, received 11 gardens for their facility. “The gardens have added a greater sense of community and brings people together in our program,” said Dawn Sommer of Faith House. Families at Faith House have been eating salad from the gardens, and soon more crops will be ready to pick. Our follow up calls and visits will continue throughout the growing season to track the success of the gardens!

13 Jun 2011

Fox 8

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Also, if you haven’t seen this yet, you need to: http://www.fox8.com/lifestyle/newdaycleveland/. Click on the “Serve Elyria” link.

13 Jun 2011

Finishing Up

Posted in Donations, Garden Requests, Gardensoxx, Prayer, Serve Elyria, Volunteer | Leave a comment

As many of you know, we weren’t able to deliver every garden on May 21st. Some issued with addresses forced us to delay deliveries until we could verify addresses. Praise God for great volunteers and patient recipients. We were able to get a good chunk of the gardens out last weekend and the remainder of the gardens have been made available for pickup.

Overall, Garden Initiative 2011 was a grand success! We tried a lot of new things this year that worked very well (including online signups, assembly line loading and even more information in the hands of the gardeners). The bumps we had were minor and easily smoothed for next year.

All in all, we were able to get gardens to about 2,000 people who will be able to feed their families fresh, organic produce this year!

This doesn’t mean the project is over by any means. Next year, we hope to go far beyond 700 gardens. In fact, we have some big news coming soon, so be on the lookout for an update in the next couple weeks.

I just wanted to thank you all for donating, volunteering and praying for this project. Keep praying as we have already started preparations for Garden Initiative 2012. Also, keep praying for every person who received a garden to not only enjoy the produce, but to experience the love of Christ and be drawn into relationship with Him!

24 May 2011

JVS Help in the Morning Journal

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http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2011/05/21/news/doc4dd737a99a205514854246.txt?viewmode=fullstory

23 May 2011

Great Day

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We had a great day Saturday! Most of the gardens have been delivered. As it turns out, the scope of Garden Initiative and the generosity of Church of the Open Door was just too big for one day. We will finish up the last few garden deliveries in the coming days. Be sure to check us out on Fox 8′s Morning Cleveland show on May 31st at 10:00am!

Thanks for all your help and donations!

Also, take some time to celebrate that 2,000 people are going to eat vegetables from these gardens!

19 May 2011

Good Press

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Just a quick note. Pulse Magazine did an article on Garden Initiative! Check it out when you get the chance! Also, Alex and I (Dan) did a brief interview with Fox 8 today for a piece to be aired Tuesday May 31st on the new Morning Cleveland show!

12 May 2011

Open Door Support

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This past Sunday, we put out prayer cards to represent every garden recipient, asking people to pick up a card to committ to pray. We also left watering cans out and invited people to give whatever was on their hearts to support the project. About 500 cards were taken! In addition, $7,700 was given to support the project! We are getting close to covering every garden with donations!

Serve Elyria is just 9 days away (May 21st)! If you want to get involved, now is the time!

Our biggest need is for people to drive trucks for delivery. Sign up here! We will see you at the Washington Avenue Parking lot in Downtown Elyria at 8:30am on May 21st!

22 Apr 2011

Buy a Garden, Give a Garden Today

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Today only: Buy a Garden, Give a Garden

Don’t forget that for every garden purchased on their site, Filtrexx International will donate a garden to Serve Elyria Garden Initiative. The gardens available for purchase include a full drip irrigation system. Click here to buy a Garden.

When the order is in your cart, use coupon code “april22”.

By the way, the order will also have free shipping (You will be contacted for pickup or just drop-off).

Just remember that the deal is only available Today!