Gainesville —
Volunteers in Service to Others (VISTO) is ready to sign up both experienced and rookie gardeners for the Elm Street Community Garden in downtown Gainesville.
This is the VISTO community garden’s third year and the plots are waiting to be adopted and filled with plants to help feed families and individuals in the community.
Suzanne Yeager is the VISTO Community Garden liaison and is now accepting reservations.
“The community garden helps people become food independent,” Yeager said. “The program teaches others who might have limited experience in gardening to be self sufficient in providing food for their family. As market prices escalate, it becomes more important for us to find other ways to afford proper nutrition.”
The community garden is not a new idea. Across the United States in small towns and big cities, communities are coming together to be more proactive in fighting hunger.
The VISTO mission is to provide food for needy families and to teach others to be self sufficient. It involves teaching others, who may have limited experience in gardening, how they can grow their own food even if it is only a patio garden in containers on their balcony.
Yeager is working to get the wooden raised garden plots repaired where needed in anticipation of spring planting.
“Most everyone likes the summer garden with tomato, zucchini, peppers, water melons etc,” she said. “ The gardens sit for most of the winter and the wooden boxes weather a little but they still look good and we anticipate spaces will go fast.”
A garden plot may be paid through donations of $30 per year, ten percent of crop yield or by providing ten hours of service in the garden.
“Most individuals donate their time,” Yeager said. “ They are out here anyway and ten hours passes quickly.”
The American Community Garden Association (ACGA) website states that community gardens are valuable assets to communities.
To find out how to participate in this year’s community garden call Suzanne Yeager at the VISTO office at 668-6403.
Youth groups are also urged to participate in the garden program and assist in cleanup for spring planting.
Local News
Related Photos
-
VISTO community garden liaison Suzanne Yeager is poised to begin work on the 2013 Elm Street project. Staff photo by Cathy Mounce
Guest Book
VISTO garden will feed area families
- Local News
-
-
VFW plans Memorial Day ceremony
This year’s Memorial Day ceremony is set to combine rigorous tribute and storytelling with a notable twist.
-
Valley View officials sworn in
Valley View city officials were sworn in during a recent city council meeting.
-
The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
Part 5 of a five-part series
It’s a bleak scenario. A massive earthquake along the New Madrid fault kills or injures 60,000 people in Tennessee. A quarter of a million people are homeless. The Memphis airport – the country’s biggest air terminal for packages – goes off-line. Major oil and gas pipelines across Tennessee rupture, causing shortages in the Northeast. In Missouri, another 15,000 people are hurt or dead. Cities and towns throughout the central U.S. lose power and water for months. Losses stack up to hundreds of billions of dollars. -
National Transportation Safety Board considers lowering blood alcohol levels for drivers
Members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have announced new recommendations in their continued quest to end drunk driving.
During the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, alcohol is a common theme in many celebratory activities throughout the nation and state, and, therefore, many Texans unnecessarily die in vehicular accidents involving alcohol-impaired drivers.
This past week, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials announced several new recommendations relating to drunk driving, including lowering the national blood alcohol content (BAC) standard from .08 to .05. -
Fire support and rehab team donates to Callisburg VFD
Cooke County Fire Support and Rehab Team recently purchased some items for Callisburg Volunteer Fire Department.
-
Gainesville Rotary club unfurls flag program
Members of the Gainesville Rotary Club are currently preparing the organization’s annual flag program which delivers and displays large American flags throughout the community and surrounding area.
-
Local damage minimal after stormy night
Wednesday storms brought negligible issues to Cooke County, with more dire effects experienced to the south.
-
Guest's memoir a hit at book signing
A magical summer in Gainesville in 1935 is recalled in Betty Bradley Junkin Guest’s book “Once Upon a Falling Star.”
-
Muenster bankers meet with delegation
More than 100 members of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT), along with local Muenster bankers, met in Washington D.C. with the Texas Congressional delegation, various regulatory agencies and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in April to discuss pressing legislative issues with national and statewide impact.
-
United Way begins 'Caring' project
The gauntlet has been thrown to area groups, churches and local business in a friendly competition to be held May 30 to assist the Cooke County United Way (CCUW) as part of the organization’s second “Community Caring” event in 2013.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash
NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital
Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Could Tobacco Be the Next Biofuel?
Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Officials: Texas Tornado Likely Had 200 Mph Wind
Brothers Arrested in NOLA Parade Shooting
