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Children's Garden Project Offers Training, Mentoring
ST. PAUL, MN (August 2, 2001) - First Covenant Church has a history of "blooming where you are planted" and a local garden is but one more example.
The Sam Eddy Children's Garden was recently dedicated during a special service honoring Sam Eddy, a banker and gardening enthusiast from the church who died in a farming accident a year ago. The accompanying photo shows Austin Kaufman, pastor of congregational life at First Covenant Church, leading the service of dedication.
Community Design Center of Minnesota - a non-profit organization located in St. Paul - is partnering with the church to operate an agricultural training and mentoring program for children. The church donated land for the garden.
A written memorial tribute to Eddy notes his role as a member and deacon of the church. "As a leader of the church, Sam was a man of faith committed to the vision of renewing and re-establishing this congregation as a vital neighborhood church for all people. Sam, a banker by trade, was a man of the earth and a master gardener and tender of the family farm, which he inherited from his father. Sam was also a devoted husband and loving father and grandfather and a friend to all children."
The Sam Eddy Children's Garden and its garden project includes a number of summertime options:
- A garden internship training program for children ages 10-14
- Classes in cooking, science and art
- Community supported Salad Share, a subscription program for 25 families to receive food and flowers from the garden
- A children's farmers market held each Saturday during the summer
- Restaurant deliveries of organic produce to a handful of local shops and stores
The center has worked in the First Covenant's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood since 1990 through its East Side Garden Project, a holistic year-round garden program. Meanwhile, Food for Thought, a school-to-work project at nearby Harding High School, has helped train students in organic food production, culinary arts and urban ecology, among other areas of interest. After-school cooking and environmental science classes and other community service programs are among the other year-round projects for the center.
For more information about the Sam Eddy Children's Garden, contact Kaufmann by telephone at 651-774-0344 or by email at office@first-covenant.org. For more information about the Community Design Center of Minnesota, call 651-228-7073 or email comdesignctr@earthlink.net.
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