Grants help grow community gardens across Western Pa.

A community garden can bring together residents who never met, and its bounty can help feed the growers and others through donations.

That’s why several community garden organizers throughout Western Pennsylvania were so happy to receive grant funding or in-kind donations to get their gardens started.

“We got some help from Thrivent Financial, who donated $500 per year the first couple years,” said Fred Oestreicher of Greensburg, who helped start the community garden at St. Matthias Lutheran Church in Hempfield about five years ago.

Starting with a dozen plots, the garden has gradually expanded to 18, 20, and finally to 24 plots, now fenced in.

“We also got a grant from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that helped cover plowing and fertilization, and, now, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re self-sustaining.”

That is what companies like Pure Farmland are hoping to do in the second year of their Pure Growth Project Grant Program, which is accepting applications for $125,000 in grants across the U.S. through June 15 at PureGrowthProject.com.

“At Pure Farmland, we’re constantly inspired by the organizations, communities, and individuals across the country who make it their life’s work to not only ensure that neighbors have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, but to protect these much-needed green spaces that are the source of connection and sustenance for so many,” said Erin Thacker, brand manager for Pure Farmland.

Pure Farmland is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor.

In Jeannette, a tax credit program organized through Westmoreland Community Action helped the former Jeannette Community Partnership program start a community garden. Westmoreland Community Action CEO Mandy Zalich said the same tax credit program is helping with a community garden in New Kensington, which is in the process of being relocated.

“And a smaller version of the same type of garden is happening at Mosaic Community Church in Jeannette,” Zalich said.

In Tarentum, the Greg Blythe Friendship Garden has thrived with start-up help from nonprofit Grow Pittsburgh.

“We received organizational help from them as opposed to grant money,” said Rev. Philip Beck of First United Presbyterian Church in Tarentum, part of a consortium of churches whose members pitched in to get the garden started.

“Through the years, we’ve received grants from Grow Pittsburgh to help grow the garden,” Beck said.

Grants like those offered by Pure Farmland and Grow Pittsburgh could be a big help to folks like Verona Councilwoman Trish Hredzak-Showalter, who is part of the borough’s parks and recreation board and its “SEE Green” committee. They want to establish a community garden near the borough’s Riverbank Park.

“It’s been such a wild ride,” Hredzak-Showalter said. “But we’re working with Grow Pittsburgh, and we could be ready to get going in a couple months, so we could potentially have it up and running by the fall.”

Many community gardens also have a service component in addition to providing a space to grow produce.

The Greg Blythe Friendship Garden in Tarentum is open to anyone in the community in a “come pick” model. In Hempfield, gardeners at St. Matthias pay to reserve a plot, but they also donated more than 1,400 pounds of produce to the Westmoreland County Food Bank last year, along with about $800 that comes from community-garden produce sales at the church.

Oestreicher said they couldn’t have reached that level without grant funding.

“It helped us a lot,” he said. “Not to mention, the 10 people who cut grass here at the church thought it was a great idea — less grass to mow!”

Beck agreed.

“In terms of expanding and being able to do more things, grant money has been definitively helpful,” he said. “It also allows you to free up money you receive from donors for other things. We didn’t have to end up paying $100 for every raised bed — we were able to spend it on other things like blueberry plants or compost.”

For more on the grants, see PureGrowthProject.com/application.