Free produce for residents

BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Residents can get free vegetables and produce starting Saturday.

“His Garden,” a community garden sponsored in part by Turkey Creek Church of the Nazarene, will distribute free lettuce and broccoli Saturday. Larger distribution days will commence June 25 and occur the last Saturday of each month until the end of October.

All produce grown in “His Garden” will be given away free on a first-come, first-serve basis in a Farmers Market set up at the church.

Planned distribution days include June 25, July 30, Aug. 27, Sept. 24 and Oct. 29.

Additional days will be added when needed to ensure freshness of produce. These additional produce drops will be communicated on the “His Garden” Facebook page.

Around 39 church members began tending to the 4,500-square-foot garden in the spring.

Grow Appalachia Martin County has predominantly funded the community garden.

Grow Appalachia is a grant program through Berea College that allocates funds to partner sites like the Martin County Cooperative Extension Office to increase food security in Appalachian communities.

The grant currently provides 60 families in Martin County with resources for raising home gardens, including tools, materials, seed, training resources, field plowing and food preservation costs.

The Centers for Disease Control, in collaboration with the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension program, is also providing funding support to His Garden and using the garden to study ways to use local produce to improve the health of the citizens of Martin County and similar communities.

The church is at 1798 Tug River Road, close to the Turkey Creek Fire Department and the intersection of Routes 908 and 292.

Contact Turkey Creek Church of the Nazarene by calling 606-298-7263 to learn more or if you are interested in volunteering your time in the community garden.