Community garden promotes healthy living

“To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” English Poet Laureate Alfred Austin

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Nestled between the Butler County Health Department building and Hendrickson Park is a community garden made possible through a Building Communities for Better Health grant and several community agencies.

Steve Kerley (from left), Eric Schalk, Rebecca Pacheco, Darby French, Amanda Fitzwater, Emily Goodin, Tracy Campbell and Lanny Corcimiglia stand around the community garden outside the Butler County Health Center.DAR/Paul Davis

The garden is designed to fill both the body and the soul by encouraging a healthier life both nutritionally and physically.

Tracy Campbell, health department health educator, explains her agency and several other community groups have been working with the grant for quite some time.

“This is the first year for the garden to be located behind the health center,” Campbell said.

Tomatoes are just one of the items grown in the community garden.DAR/Paul Davis

“One of many objectives of the garden is chronic disease prevention,” Campbell said. “We want to increase access to healthy food and physical activities.”

The garden has tomatoes, yellow squash, green beans, zucchini, peppers and cucumbers, and “we hope each year to add another raised box for the garden depending on participation and need,” she said.

The garden is handicapped accessible. There is a parking lot next to the garden, which is accessible from Hendrickson Park, too.

Each type of vegetable is grown in its own raised planter box.DAR/Paul Davis

“We are trying to create awareness and accessibility, so the garden may be used as an education tool,” she said.

Anyone in the community who is interested in helping with the garden or bringing a group for the nutrition education needs to call me,” she said.

Campbell needs help weeding and watering, she said. Volunteers include some of the neighbors, who came out, looked at the garden and talked with her about the garden.

“I’ve noticed some are coming out and just setting on a bench near the garden,” she said.

If you are interested in the classes or working in the garden, talk with her about scheduling time to come out.

Cameras are mounted on the back of the health center monitoring the garden and running 24 hours a day for security.

“We need to be aware our community needs more community gardening and nutrition education for better health,” Campbell said.

“We are actually doing an event later this summer,” said Campbell, adding they will set up a tent for a tasting with samples of the fresh vegetables, which are grown in the garden.

Saint Francis Medical Center and its foundation are teaming up with the local groups

James “Jimmy” Wilferth is vice president of marketing and the foundation at Saint Francis. The medical center and the foundation are donating hydroponic tower gardens for the Twin Towers and the Karen West Head Start program.

Wilferth said, “We are into health care: holistic, Christian, mental, spiritual and emotional.”

He and the medical center staff and employees realized youngsters in their communities received free and reduced meals at school; a lot of them had one meal a day to eat over the summer.

They decided to help take care of what you put into your bodies, and the bodies of the kids by starting a summer feeding and health education program.

“We learned the students involved in the program are ready to continue learning and were not malnourished” when they returned to school, Wilferth said.

Wilferth and the medical center staff became “passionate about expanding our footprint not just in Cape Girardeau but the outlying communities we service.”

The hydroponic tower gardens will provide fresh food 52 weeks out of the year, which are healthy for the body, mentally and socially. Seniors can work and grow things, which will help them relate to health and emotions.

Wilferth believes the gardens will be “a huge win for the Twin Towers and the Head Start. We are passionate here in the foundation,” but they are not giving handouts when they decided to become involved in Poplar Bluff.

“We love Southeast Missouri,” he said, before sharing the proverb, “You give a poor man a fish, and you feed him for a day. You teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime.”

He added what Saint Francis is hoping to do with hydroponic tower gardens is teach people to grow their own food.

Local agencies and individuals helping with the garden include Lanny Corcimiglia, director of Poplar Buff Parks and Recreation, who pitched in helping with the soil, watering hoses and other needed items.

Others are Butler County Resource Council’s Rebecca Pacheco and executive director Regina Skader; Hillary Burton, Department of Health and Senior Services; Sheryl Talkington of the Butler County Wellness Council; and Dixie Duncan of the Heartlands Moves Council.

Also part of the project are Eric Schalk at Gamblin Lumber, who donated the material for the raised beds, and Stephen Kerley, who helped the build garden boxes.

The health center telephone number is 573-785-8478.