Harvesting God’s love

Throughout the summer The Catholic Free Press will feature stories about how our parishes give back to the greater community. St. Rose of Lima does it by providing fresh vegetables from a garden tended by parishioners. 

By Christina Galeone | CFP Correspondent

NORTHBOROUGH – St. Rose of Lima parishioner Joan Scott has been involved in the St. Rose Community Garden since it began in 2008. But after keeping it going during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mrs. Scott and the Garden Committee she chairs were particularly thankful at the church’s recent annual Planting Day.

“I feel like my family and I were really blessed during this difficult time,” Mrs. Scott shared, noting that she was also grateful to see people come together as a community and hug each other again. “I felt more grateful than ever that we could do this, and we could give back. We realize how important this garden is, and that we can’t take having enough food to eat for granted.”

With that realization, around 15-20 volunteers, including Mrs. Scott, united under sunny blue skies at St. Rose of Lima Parish’s Planting Day last month. They planted a wide array of vegetables that will be donated to the Northborough Food Pantry.   

Originally an Eagle Scout project conceived by St. Rose of Lima parishioner Will Deady, the St. Rose Community Garden was inspired by volunteer work that Will and some fellow Young Neighbors in Action (YNIA) parishioners performed at Community Harvest Project, the nonprofit farm in Grafton. After the teen initiated the project, the church’s Garden Committee was established to keep the ministry going by overseeing the garden planning and coordinating the volunteers.  About three families or individuals sign up to be “farmers” for each week from June through September. The volunteers follow instructions to weed the garden and harvest the produce. They also deliver the vegetables to the Northborough Food Pantry and extra produce to Northborough Senior Housing. People from the community donate plants, compost and grass clippings, and the church’s neighbor, European Car Service Inc. owned by Chris Carroll, kindly supplies plenty of water.   

While the pandemic significantly increased food insecurity, it also posed challenges to the committee. 

“We had to come up with a whole new strategy to get the plants into the ground,” Mrs. Scott said, noting that the committee solved the problem by transitioning to online sign-ups for volunteers, requiring masks and social distancing for Planting Day 2020 volunteers, and scheduling the day into shifts to decrease the number of volunteers participating at one time. 

“We’re just glad that we were able to keep providing the vegetables,” she added.

Not surprisingly, Karen Scopetski, the co-director of the Northborough Food Pantry, is glad as well. “The fresh vegetables are so welcome during the summer months!” she said. “The pandemic made it hard for clients that are not usually out of work. The donations from St. Rose are a blessing. Our patrons are so thankful for the donations and to be able to have healthy food.” 

Mrs. Scott, whose husband and family are involved in the ministry as well, has also seen how the garden influences people. She said that one year a food pantry client was so thankful for the fresh produce she received that she volunteered for a Planting Day. Another woman, who had traveled to the area to attend a funeral, spotted Mrs. Scott preparing for Planting Day and inquired about it. The Garden Committee chair said that the woman was so impressed that she wanted to suggest a similar ministry at her church. Mrs. Scott said, “It’s really just so meaningful to people.”    

And it’s clear that Father James Houston – the church’s pastor who retired July 1 – feels the same. The priest participated in Planting Day as well as the blessing of the garden (on June 6) and found great beauty, goodness, joy and community in both events in the midst of what he referred to as “these days of horror and sadness.” He was thrilled that the produce will benefit so many people. 

He said that the experience also brought to mind Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato si,’ about caring for each other and the environment .“It reminded me of God’s creative love,” Father Houston shared. “The earth looked so beautiful to me on that Saturday morning. It was such a wonderful thing for us to have done.”