Ages of the children who work in the garden: 2-17
The garden was established in 2010.
Congratulations and thank you to the Emmaus House for the powerful and impactful work being done with gardening to help homeless women and their children. Read about the Emmaus House Kids Community Garden and watch their video submission:
Motivation
The garden was originally conceived out of necessity in 2010. The need was to provide nourishing food to the homeless in our shelter, and others, at a reasonable cost. The need was also to restore homeless women and their children through ownership and accomplishment.Garden's Impact on the Community
The Emmaus House Community Garden serves as the centerpiece of the Garden-Based Learning approach. As the garden is being developed we have already had requests for field trips from one second grade class and one kindergarten class. The program is being developed using youth volunteers from throughout the community including the Local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club of West Georgia, and other interested individuals with special appeals to senior citizens to serve as mentors.The harvest produced will be used to feed the residents of The Emmaus Shelter for Homeless Women and Children, a division of The Emmaus House - LaGrange, Inc. Once our principal goal has been reached we will preserve our garden grown vegetables for future shelter use. In addition, the vegetables grown will be used to prepare emergency food boxes for non-homeless, but poor, children typically of working parents, to provide their children a nutritious meal at their day care centers. The remainder of our vegetables will be distributed to needy families in Georgia and Alabama through local agencies. Using our broad satellite distribution centers of churches and other philanthropic groups we will distribute throughout the East Alabama and West Georgia-Chattahoochee Valley region.
