Grow Appalachia, UK, CDC fund no-cost farmers market in Inez

BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Volunteers and workers broke ground Saturday at Turkey Creek Church of the Nazarene in Inez in preparation for the church’s new community food program: His Garden.

With the help of funds provided by Grow Appalachia Martin County and a partnership between the University of Kentucky and the CDC, Turkey Creek Church members will volunteer their time to raise a fruit and vegetable garden to provide healthy, fresh produce at no cost to locals.

“During COVID, I just began to think and I began to pray. And I said, ‘God, we gotta figure out something to do to help the community, we gotta come out of COVID strong. How can we make an impact?’” Turkey Creek pastor Derek Catron said in an interview after the groundbreaking ceremony Saturday. “How can we meet people’s needs?”

Catron, originally from Columbus, Ohio, has served as pastor of Turkey Creek Nazarene since November 2019 and has made a push for his congregation to focus on being healthy and remaining united during the pandemic. In 2020, the church’s goal was to “be healthy, be one and be the church.”

“We are working on a 4,500-square-foot garden this year. We have 39 servants [of God] in the church, they’re going to help us right now — we may get some more. And the idea is we’re just going to grow everything we can,” Catron said, eager to begin the planting process.

The church intends to begin planting fruits and vegetables within 10 days of breaking ground and distributing freshly-harvested fruits and vegetables in a no-cost farmers market on the front porch of the church by the end of June. Once up and running, produce will be available at the church on a first-come-first-served basis on the last Saturday of every month.