Sowing the seeds of change

By Kelly Moyer

The South County Spotlight, Mar 18, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

There's a garden movement underway in Columbia County. Some want to see a traditional community garden, while others are pushing for backyard kitchen gardens and large gardens to feed the area's food banks.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture / The South County Spotlight

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It’s hard not to be depressed over the state of the economy these days. Everywhere you look, the news is bad: people are losing their jobs, local food banks are running out of supplies and people are constantly being asked to do more with less.

But a few Columbia County residents say there’s a very easy way to help the food banks, help our neighbors and help ourselves — by planting a garden.

“It’s an easy way to help feed people and I think it’s a way for people to feel good about themselves ... to know that they can make it through this,” said Jim Bach, one of the gardening advocates.

A movement is underway to get a community garden built in St. Helens for those who want to grow their own food, but may not have the resources or the space.

Some people want to take it a step further and plant a large plot to grow fresh produce for the regional food bank.

Meanwhile, the Oregon State University’s Columbia County Extension Service is looking for new gardeners under the age of 45 who have been negatively affected by the economic downturn to build kitchen gardens in their backyards.

Here are a few of the people involved in the new garden movement:

The Activist

When Jim Bach approached the St. Helens City Council last month to talk about community gardening, some councilors wondered aloud if he was “there about the goats again.”

They remembered Bach’s presentation on the benefits of allowing pygmy goats at private homes inside the city limits.

“I still think it’s a great idea,” Bach says of raising pygmy goats at home for goat milk. “But that wasn’t why I was there that day.”

No, on this day, Bach had come to discuss another idea for a more sustainable community — growing a garden to nourish the region’s food banks.

“We’re a relatively poor county, but we have lots of water, land and fertilizer,” Bach said.

Building a community garden that’s powered by community members as well as food bank recipients to supply fresh produce to the area’s hungry is a win-win situation in Bach’s eyes. The food banks benefit from an abundance of things like winter squash, cauliflower and carrots - items that are healthy, but that will keep longer than other produce. And food bank recipients learn that they can help themselves weather the economic storm by growing healthy food.

“If there was one thing we learned after Hurricane Katrina, it was that, instead of waiting for the government to provide for us, we’ll have to provide for ourselves,” Bach said. “With the garden, people would realize ‘Hey, we can do this ourselves. We can produce our own food.’”

As the owner and resident-manager of a low-income hotel in Olde Towne St. Helens, Bach sees food bank recipients every day and knows the food banks are in need of fresh, healthy produce.

“If we produced an acre of winter squash, we could provide so much for the food banks. And the good thing about squash is that it’s high in fiber and is low glycemic, so it’s good for people,” Bach said.

While others are panicking about the financial crisis, Bach sees an opportunity for communities like St. Helens to focus on what’s really important.

“I’d like to see people start focusing on the tangibles ... on making sure people have shelter, have enough to eat and are being cared for,” Bach said. “Growing our own food is inherent in all of us ... and I think that, once we quit relying on others to do it for us, we’d all feel a lot more comfortable about the economy and what’s going on in the world right now.”