Ultimately, the COVID-19 situation of 2020 has brought to the forefront more than just the safety and support for at-risk single mother families but the need for learning how to provide nutritionally for the family!  In this respect we will be in the forefront of providing just that need by providing a ‘Learning and Teaching Natures Balance’ large organic garden for both vegetables and fruit plus teaching the moms how to grow and cook with fresh ingredients for their family. This is sorely lacking these days but we have found that more and more young families want to learn how to grow fresh food and prepare it so that their family can be healthier and the children can learn to cook too!  Again it will be helping the families of the next generations, and we’ll probably be doing a lot of ‘from Farm to Table’ dinners and eat outside, cooking at our garden kitchen!

Work on the organic garden area next to the Housemother’s house has begun, and, it has continued to grow and grow!  Bees are coming to all the flowering vines and our chickens are flourishing under the trees on the other side of the creek. You can see their pen under the trees in the background in the two photos below.

Their pen will be enlarged so they can use one side of the initial pen, then the other, keeping the ground nourished, weeds down, and eating yummy grass and bugs.

 

 

 

We will also be providing Garden-to-Table workshops encouraging the moms to cook with fresh ingredients!  Entitled ‘Back to the Basics of Cooking’ they will also be taught that even though eating healthy looks more expensive being shown that long-term meals ultimately cost less, they will be ahead of the game. Knowing that using one large cut of meat or a whole chicken will provide way more than just one meal each time, being creative with leftovers and even cooking the bones of either will make a wonderful broth for soups in the winter and can be frozen until then.  In this area we will be having staff members from the UT Extension Agriculture Center Office in Anderson County providing special workshops that will excite and include the families. Another fun meal would be to have a pizza oven available and a ‘Make Your Own Pizza’ night by having each family make their own crust and after the sauce is made going to the garden to pick just the right vegetables for the top and adding the cheese they like.  This would be a great interactive and constructive time together for everyone concerned.  This is sorely lacking these days but we have found that more and more families want to learn how to grow fresh food and prepare it so that their family can be healthier and the children can learn to cook too.  Again it will be helping the families of the next generations!

Within the framework of our organic gardens we will also have our own pollinator garden with Mason Bee shelters and Honey Bee Hives, managed by the Anderson County Beekeepers Association, which are a necessity to the growth of flowers, fruit trees, vegetables and the future of fresh food, and our own honey, plus chickens to provide fresh eggs to the families as another form of protein to utilize in many forms whether it is the egg itself or to use in baking.  The chickens will also help provide a needed form of fertilizer for the gardens along with our own compost bins from using available fruit and vegetable trimmings for an abundance of safe compost for our soil in the planters which will be the healthiest addition to our plants for creating an organic garden.  Many birds eat a variety of insects so attracting birds and providing bird baths to the garden encourages them to take advantage of this natural food source, eliminating the need for harsh chemical insecticides.  Garden netting will help prevent birds from eating those items that they especially like, such as cherries, blueberries, and helps keep seedlings safe until they are rooted well enough to resist birds pulling on them!  In the winter, bird feeders are a must!

What better way to show the development of a positive need than to provide organic gardens to learn about, plant, harvest, and eat from, fresh eggs from our own chickens to learn about and cook with, and a vibrant community made up of single mother families working to become self-sufficient by enhancing their education, working on setting and accomplishing their goals, and setting up a budget system that fits their needs, thus enabling them to transition off government support and provide for their family within their own means and putting back into the economics of their community.

Although we will be providing the vegetables and fruit for our moms and children they will also have the opportunity to learn all about raising their own gardens when they move on, even in a small area, and for that to work they will need to become involved in all aspects of maintaining gardens; preparing the soil, planting the seeds or seedlings, maintaining the correct moisture to ensure survival in hot weather, keeping the beds maintained by weeding and pinching back to allow the strongest and largest plants to survive.  To encourage gardening for fresh food we also plan on having each of our families grow what they especially like and prepare, plant, maintain, cook, and enjoy the fruits of their labor!  This hits at the core of most of us.  Gardeners cannot stomach the fact that someone isn’t getting enough food and we feel a strong urge to get our food to them.  It’s part of who we are to feed others.  I love this and love empowering others to grow food too!

In addition, we want to encourage the children to learn about gardening from the aspect of “Natures Balance” by providing sketch pads and colored pencils to get down to the level of the plants, bugs, and birds that may visit them, so life can become real in their own drawings.  We also will have a large block wall separating the garden area from next door weeds that will be painted and just waiting for the moms and children to paint their story or heart.  They can put together their own bird houses and other projects that will be offered.  It would be an exciting time for our kids and moms, working together on things they can take with them when they are able to move on.  What an opportunity for all involved, volunteers and residents alike!

When our families move on they will always have access to the gardens they enjoyed while living at Crossroads Center of Hope.  This way they will be encouraged to continue eating in a healthy way, learn more about maintaining their own garden and be willing to try new foods.  In the beginning we will be starting with three single mother families with either one or two children and when our back building is finished we will add another three families.  As our families are able to maintain their own home or apartment (or as turnover occurs) we will be filling their former apartment with another family needing what we will be offering.  It has been found in other similar organization that within twelve to eighteen months the moms have accomplished their goals and set up a good budgeting system to be able to maintain their new home for the family.  If we find a mom who really needs to stay with us for a longer period of time and new goals are set, our arms and hearts will be open to continue working with her until she is ready to leave, up to the three year stay!