Baylor freshman Grace Hoel spreads compost on a bed to prepare it for planting.
File Photo
By Jordan Corona
Staff Writer
The Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition is hosting a day of service this Martin Luther King Day. The community is invited to volunteer a few hours, some sweat and neighborliness at one of 10 service sites around town from 12-3 p.m. Monday. Lunch, courtesy of the Campus Kitchen, will be provided to participants who have registered at the coalition’s website by Wednesday. Questions should be directed to Elizabeth Ross of the coalition, who may be contacted at 254-710-4187 for community outreach.
“If you have other plans for Martin Luther King Day, you can still help out,” Ross said. Saturday and Sunday leading to the holiday, the Campus Kitchen and volunteer hands can help assemble lunches for delivery on Monday.
Ross said she and Jenni Moore, who heads up the Campus Kitchen, are expecting 300 volunteers from the community. Baylor students are encouraged to join the effort and sign up online at the Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition website.
The service sites are mostly community gardens at local schools and churches.
Florence Clarke maintains one of the community gardens on the list for the service day with her husband Vernon and a few from her church.
“We started the garden in April 2010 with donations from the community,” Clarke said.
She’s expecting about 30 volunteers to show up and help weed the plot at St. Luke’s African-Methodist Episcopal Church and possibly put some seeds down Monday afternoon as part of the day of service.
The church feeds its neighbors with some of the garden’s produce and sends some to the Family Abuse Center.
“The program is really important because it helps build the community,” Clarke said.
