Half-Price Books Rocks

Faithful readers are aware that the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden has been distributing children’s books to neighborhood kids in July.  There is no library within walking distance and no book mobile makes it to our neighborhood. I realized last summer when we tried to engage in some 4-H gardening activities that a lot of the kids couldn’t read – and certainly not at grade level.   As you know, we ran out of books after just a few weeks – particularly “chapter books.”  I made a plea for more books, and Cathy from Urban Connections found out, and told me last night, how we could obtain free books from Half-Price Books. 

This morning, I submitted an email request, but was told it might take 60 days.  That wouldn’t do because the kids had been pestering me since last week.  So, I called the Upper Arlington store to ask directly.  When I explained why I wanted their fax number, they told me that they already had children’s books packed up for me to pick up as soon as I showed up.  That’s what Cathy and I call God’s will.  I had tears in my eyes.

This afternoon I drove over to the store and Assistant Manager Liz packed up two boxes and two large grocery bags.  She would have given me twice as many, but there are only so many books the kids can read before school starts and there’s the issue of where to store them . . . . .  They took up my entire car trunk.  For those non-profits out there that need children’s books, Liz has more books to donate.

I told Cathy about our success as soon as I got home and she volunteered Urban Connections as a storage place for the extra books.  So, after they returned from a day at Alum Creek beach with the neighborhood kids and their Bible Camp volunteers, they helped me to unload the books.  Cathy then learned that Burt had already picked up three boxes of books from Half-Price Books.  So now we definitely seem to have enough.  I sorted the books (and we have lots and lots of Babysitter Club mysteries).  I picked the best books to keep in my car trunk for when I see the kids at the Garden.

Kenaya and Antoinette are seen here getting new books to read over the weekend.  After all, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow.

I could never work in a book store because I would spend all day reading instead of working.   As it was, I noticed they had a number of British books on Allotment Gardening – that’s the British version of community gardening.  In England, it has been legally required for each community to “allot” land for cultivation by the masses since 1908.  Allotments are critical to people who live in flats (aka apartments) because they would otherwise have no land on which to grow their own food.  Brits take their gardening almost as seriously as football (aka soccer).   The book is very interesting and discusses produce to grow, succession planting, etc.  I took about five copies for our gardeners. 

Half-Price Books Rocks

Faithful readers are aware that the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden has been distributing children’s books to neighborhood kids in July.  There is no library within walking distance and no book mobile makes it to our neighborhood. I realized last summer when we tried to engage in some 4-H gardening activities that a lot of the kids couldn’t read – and certainly not at grade level.   As you know, we ran out of books after just a few weeks – particularly “chapter books.”  I made a plea for more books, and Cathy from Urban Connections found out, and told me last night, how we could obtain free books from Half-Price Books. 

This morning, I submitted an email request, but was told it might take 60 days.  That wouldn’t do because the kids had been pestering me since last week.  So, I called the Upper Arlington store to ask directly.  When I explained why I wanted their fax number, they told me that they already had children’s books packed up for me to pick up as soon as I showed up.  That’s what Cathy and I call God’s will.  I had tears in my eyes.

This afternoon I drove over to the store and Assistant Manager Liz packed up two boxes and two large grocery bags.  She would have given me twice as many, but there are only so many books the kids can read before school starts and there’s the issue of where to store them . . . . .  They took up my entire car trunk.  For those non-profits out there that need children’s books, Liz has more books to donate.

I told Cathy about our success as soon as I got home and she volunteered Urban Connections as a storage place for the extra books.  So, after they returned from a day at Alum Creek beach with the neighborhood kids and their Bible Camp volunteers, they helped me to unload the books.  Cathy then learned that Burt had already picked up three boxes of books from Half-Price Books.  So now we definitely seem to have enough.  I sorted the books (and we have lots and lots of Babysitter Club mysteries).  I picked the best books to keep in my car trunk for when I see the kids at the Garden.

Kenaya and Antoinette are seen here getting new books to read over the weekend.  After all, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow.

I could never work in a book store because I would spend all day reading instead of working.   As it was, I noticed they had a number of British books on Allotment Gardening – that’s the British version of community gardening.  In England, it has been legally required for each community to “allot” land for cultivation by the masses since 1908.  Allotments are critical to people who live in flats (aka apartments) because they would otherwise have no land on which to grow their own food.  Brits take their gardening almost as seriously as football (aka soccer).   The book is very interesting and discusses produce to grow, succession planting, etc.  I took about five copies for our gardeners. 

Corporate Partnerships Can Help Raise Garden Produce for Food Pantries

I am about to embark on my annual journey to my hometown to celebrate my Grandfather's 97th birthday.  Because everyone else is contributing high-carb foods to the potluck, I'll be bringing my Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw to add some color to the table.

Although it's in a rural area of the state, my hometown shares the problems of urban centers in supplying sufficient fresh and other produce for its food pantries (necessitated by high unemployment in my home county).  Therefore, a group of churches banded together to grow their own fresh produce for 20 area pantries.  Some churches had their own land and others grew produce (like potatoes, corn and tomatoes) on the land of their members.  However, in a different twist, one of the five acre pantry plots is on land owned by a manufacturing plant, Weastec.

Weastec is permitting the Hope Christian Alliance to grow beans on the five acres behind the local plant to raise food for area food pantries.  The biggest problem now -- as reported by the local newspaper -- is that they cannot find enough volunteers to harvest their very substantial crop.  I can certainly relate to that.  (My home county has been blessed with sufficient rainfall this year -- unlike the near East Side of Columbus).

Weastec's Senior Vice President said that the plant wasn't using the acreage for anything and had to mow it.  So, it hasn't been any problem for them to let the Alliance plow and plant it.  They considered putting an orchard back there, but they are concerned about deer and the delay in having a harvestable crop.  The company hasn't had any problems with litter, trespassing, etc.   It's just disappointing that not enough people or pantry clients have volunteered to help pick all of the beans being grown back there.

I think it's nice that a local employer has a creative way to give back to the community where it is located.   It's one of my favorite corporate-garden partnerships:  one that doesn't cost the company anything, but is a big help the community gardening movement.  (Just like the SACG's partnership with BTBO to let us harvest rain water off its roof).  

Corporate Partnerships Can Help Raise Garden Produce for Food Pantries

I am about to embark on my annual journey to my hometown to celebrate my Grandfather's 97th birthday.  Because everyone else is contributing high-carb foods to the potluck, I'll be bringing my Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw to add some color to the table.

Although it's in a rural area of the state, my hometown shares the problems of urban centers in supplying sufficient fresh and other produce for its food pantries (necessitated by high unemployment in my home county).  Therefore, a group of churches banded together to grow their own fresh produce for 20 area pantries.  Some churches had their own land and others grew produce (like potatoes, corn and tomatoes) on the land of their members.  However, in a different twist, one of the five acre pantry plots is on land owned by a manufacturing plant, Weastec.

Weastec is permitting the Hope Christian Alliance to grow beans on the five acres behind the local plant to raise food for area food pantries.  The biggest problem now -- as reported by the local newspaper -- is that they cannot find enough volunteers to harvest their very substantial crop.  I can certainly relate to that.  (My home county has been blessed with sufficient rainfall this year -- unlike the near East Side of Columbus).

Weastec's Senior Vice President said that the plant wasn't using the acreage for anything and had to mow it.  So, it hasn't been any problem for them to let the Alliance plow and plant it.  They considered putting an orchard back there, but they are concerned about deer and the delay in having a harvestable crop.  The company hasn't had any problems with litter, trespassing, etc.   It's just disappointing that not enough people or pantry clients have volunteered to help pick all of the beans being grown back there.

I think it's nice that a local employer has a creative way to give back to the community where it is located.   It's one of my favorite corporate-garden partnerships:  one that doesn't cost the company anything, but is a big help the community gardening movement.  (Just like the SACG's partnership with BTBO to let us harvest rain water off its roof).  

SACG Is Blessed From The Cougar Group’s Giving Back to the Local Columbus Community on Arbor Day

As faithful readers may recall, The Cougar Group celebrated the relocation of its headquarters to 1515 Alum Creek Drive (just a hop, skip and jump down the road from the SACG) on Friday – which also happened to be Arbor Day. Although a bit windy, it was a beautiful day – with lots of blue skies and sunshine. The organizer of the event – Kathy Wiant – arranged for a tent, live music and a BBQ for all of the guests. As part of the celebration, The Cougar Group also held a raffle to benefit the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden. They found us courtesy of Bill Dawson, Director of Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green program to support community gardens. To underscore The Cougar Group's commitment to the SACG, its president – Mike Watkins – and Kathy were the first volunteers to show up when the SACG broke ground for the 2010 season. Kathy picked up litter and Mike dug holes for our blueberry and rose bushes and helped Beth plant the rose bushes. One of the SACG's neighbors -- Ms. Anthony, Executive Director of the Build The Bridge of Ohio, Org. – also attended the The Cougar Group event to show her support.

The Cougar Group manufactures and sells outdoor power equipment, like lawn mowers, snow blowers, weed trimmers, leaf blowers, generators, and rototillers. Mike started it a few years ago and recruited a high-octane management team to help him. For instance, Henry Davis graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Yale and an MBA from Stanford University. Two of the management team worked together at Saturn and two of them worked together at Allied Signal. They all have a lot of experience from Fortune 200 companies. They chose to relocate to Alum Creek Drive because that location gave them an opportunity to have both retail space and warehouse space from which to ship large orders to customers located as far away as Dubai. They've already entered into a contract with the State of Louisiana and with Columbus' own Parks & Recreation Department (which celebrated its 100^th anniversary last week as well) to supply power lawn equipment. They've also recently received their Minority Business Enterprise designation, which will greatly assist them achieve more government contracts.

The event was well attended. State Representative Tracy Maxwell Heard presented the management team with an eloquent proclamation and a representative from the Ohio Department of Development was also there, along with members of their families, friends who had helped them get started, and business associates. Each member of the management team emphasized how blessed he had been in his personal and professional life and wanted to share his blessings with the local community. Among other things, The Cougar Group wants to relocate its manufacturing operation to Columbus in order to create more jobs for the local community. In addition to providing support to the SACG, it also wants to help FPC start an entrepreneurship program for youths to start their own lawn mowing businesses. It is also creating a franchising opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to start their own outdoor maintenance service business by providing a trailer which would be filled with lawn care equipment in the summer (like lawn mowers, trimmers, & blowers) and with snow removal equipment in the winter.

The raffle was a great success and raised $300 for the SACG which we can use, among other things, towards the purchase of a 500 gallon water tank (to collect rain water) so that we can satisfy the current watering needs of the SACG as well as possibly supporting an expansion of the garden next year. Kathy created very cute wheelbarrows to hold the blank raffle tickets, money and ticket stubs. The raffle's winner won a Cougar lawn mower. (Even though Bill and I both bought two tickets and I pulled the winning ticket, alas, neither of us were the winners of the raffle or the door prizes). Kathy also created very cute table centerpieces of child-sized Cougar lawn mowers. To support the raffle, our gardener extraordinare, Rayna, created a fabulous story display board showing highlights from the 2009 growing season -- from our first litter pick-up day on the vacant lot in early April 2009 to our Fall clean-up day in November 2009 – and I added a few pictures from this season as well. Bill brought a few display boards showing scenes from other local community gardens as well as information about Plant a Row and Growing to Green.

Each attendee received a gift bag with the logo of the Cougar Group and which contained some pens, a Briggs & Stratton hat, a stapler and note pad from the Ohio Department of Development, a water bottle from Insurance Agencies of Ohio, a Franklin Park Conservatory bookmark, and a security whistle key chain from ADT Security, etc. Music and entertainment was provided by the very talented and good looking Thor Winston.

However, the biggest surprise of the event was reserved for me at the end of the opening day ceremony: The Cougar Group donated to us a brand new rototiller!!! We can use it whenever we want and won't have to reserve it weeks in advance and keep our fingers crossed for good weather on the one day we have it (like we do now). No more sleepless nights wondering if I can find someone who owns a tiller and is willing to till the garden for us each April. Isn't that great! Of course, it's enormous and just barely fits in our brand-new shed. In the spirit of paying it forward and inspired by the generosity of The Cougar Group, we'd be delighted to loan it to other community gardens (who, of course, sign a blood oath to return itJ).

As you can imagine, the rototiller would not fit in the back of my Jetta, so we were lucky that Bill drove his truck to the event and could transport it back to the SACG for us. This also gave me the opportunity to show him our brand new shed – which Charlie had just painted with primer – as well as our recent capital improvements along Cherry Street, our new blueberry bushes and the two beds we built for BTBO behind its offices. Speaking of Bill. You've heard the saying, "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium." Well, Bill also really gets around. Who knew? On the day before The Cougar Group event, he was in Arkansas helping with a new community garden and on the morning of our event, he was back in Columbus helping with the creation of the new Healthy Hands and Healthy Hearts community garden on the near East side. I remember that he was in Fairfield County (helping with its Master Gardening program) when we broke ground for the 2010 growing season and I saw him on WCMH early on Saturday morning for the Earth Day weekend workdays. His travel schedule was so exhausting; I could not remember any more details. However, he thinks he might get two days off in June to attend a wedding. Otherwise, he is essentially working six days each week and tends his own garden on the seventh. I get tired just thinking about it.

We are truly blessed to have such a generous benefactor in The Cougar Group. Their support of the SACG will help us accomplish great things – not just this year but in the future as well. I hope that The Cougar Group will be a great success in the future and be able to help us out again someday with volunteers and other support. That is, of course, more likely to hapen if all of our readers and supporters stop by its newest store on 1515 Alum Creek Drive (just feet south of the I-70 entrance/exit ramp) to wish them well, check out the Cougar line of mowers and patronize a new, local business.

SACG Is Blessed From The Cougar Group’s Giving Back to the Local Columbus Community on Arbor Day

As faithful readers may recall, The Cougar Group celebrated the relocation of its headquarters to 1515 Alum Creek Drive (just a hop, skip and jump down the road from the SACG) on Friday – which also happened to be Arbor Day. Although a bit windy, it was a beautiful day – with lots of blue skies and sunshine. The organizer of the event – Kathy Wiant – arranged for a tent, live music and a BBQ for all of the guests. As part of the celebration, The Cougar Group also held a raffle to benefit the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden. They found us courtesy of Bill Dawson, Director of Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green program to support community gardens. To underscore The Cougar Group's commitment to the SACG, its president – Mike Watkins – and Kathy were the first volunteers to show up when the SACG broke ground for the 2010 season. Kathy picked up litter and Mike dug holes for our blueberry and rose bushes and helped Beth plant the rose bushes. One of the SACG's neighbors -- Ms. Anthony, Executive Director of the Build The Bridge of Ohio, Org. – also attended the The Cougar Group event to show her support.

The Cougar Group manufactures and sells outdoor power equipment, like lawn mowers, snow blowers, weed trimmers, leaf blowers, generators, and rototillers. Mike started it a few years ago and recruited a high-octane management team to help him. For instance, Henry Davis graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Yale and an MBA from Stanford University. Two of the management team worked together at Saturn and two of them worked together at Allied Signal. They all have a lot of experience from Fortune 200 companies. They chose to relocate to Alum Creek Drive because that location gave them an opportunity to have both retail space and warehouse space from which to ship large orders to customers located as far away as Dubai. They've already entered into a contract with the State of Louisiana and with Columbus' own Parks & Recreation Department (which celebrated its 100^th anniversary last week as well) to supply power lawn equipment. They've also recently received their Minority Business Enterprise designation, which will greatly assist them achieve more government contracts.

The event was well attended. State Representative Tracy Maxwell Heard presented the management team with an eloquent proclamation and a representative from the Ohio Department of Development was also there, along with members of their families, friends who had helped them get started, and business associates. Each member of the management team emphasized how blessed he had been in his personal and professional life and wanted to share his blessings with the local community. Among other things, The Cougar Group wants to relocate its manufacturing operation to Columbus in order to create more jobs for the local community. In addition to providing support to the SACG, it also wants to help FPC start an entrepreneurship program for youths to start their own lawn mowing businesses. It is also creating a franchising opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to start their own outdoor maintenance service business by providing a trailer which would be filled with lawn care equipment in the summer (like lawn mowers, trimmers, & blowers) and with snow removal equipment in the winter.

The raffle was a great success and raised $300 for the SACG which we can use, among other things, towards the purchase of a 500 gallon water tank (to collect rain water) so that we can satisfy the current watering needs of the SACG as well as possibly supporting an expansion of the garden next year. Kathy created very cute wheelbarrows to hold the blank raffle tickets, money and ticket stubs. The raffle's winner won a Cougar lawn mower. (Even though Bill and I both bought two tickets and I pulled the winning ticket, alas, neither of us were the winners of the raffle or the door prizes). Kathy also created very cute table centerpieces of child-sized Cougar lawn mowers. To support the raffle, our gardener extraordinare, Rayna, created a fabulous story display board showing highlights from the 2009 growing season -- from our first litter pick-up day on the vacant lot in early April 2009 to our Fall clean-up day in November 2009 – and I added a few pictures from this season as well. Bill brought a few display boards showing scenes from other local community gardens as well as information about Plant a Row and Growing to Green.

Each attendee received a gift bag with the logo of the Cougar Group and which contained some pens, a Briggs & Stratton hat, a stapler and note pad from the Ohio Department of Development, a water bottle from Insurance Agencies of Ohio, a Franklin Park Conservatory bookmark, and a security whistle key chain from ADT Security, etc. Music and entertainment was provided by the very talented and good looking Thor Winston.

However, the biggest surprise of the event was reserved for me at the end of the opening day ceremony: The Cougar Group donated to us a brand new rototiller!!! We can use it whenever we want and won't have to reserve it weeks in advance and keep our fingers crossed for good weather on the one day we have it (like we do now). No more sleepless nights wondering if I can find someone who owns a tiller and is willing to till the garden for us each April. Isn't that great! Of course, it's enormous and just barely fits in our brand-new shed. In the spirit of paying it forward and inspired by the generosity of The Cougar Group, we'd be delighted to loan it to other community gardens (who, of course, sign a blood oath to return itJ).

As you can imagine, the rototiller would not fit in the back of my Jetta, so we were lucky that Bill drove his truck to the event and could transport it back to the SACG for us. This also gave me the opportunity to show him our brand new shed – which Charlie had just painted with primer – as well as our recent capital improvements along Cherry Street, our new blueberry bushes and the two beds we built for BTBO behind its offices. Speaking of Bill. You've heard the saying, "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium." Well, Bill also really gets around. Who knew? On the day before The Cougar Group event, he was in Arkansas helping with a new community garden and on the morning of our event, he was back in Columbus helping with the creation of the new Healthy Hands and Healthy Hearts community garden on the near East side. I remember that he was in Fairfield County (helping with its Master Gardening program) when we broke ground for the 2010 growing season and I saw him on WCMH early on Saturday morning for the Earth Day weekend workdays. His travel schedule was so exhausting; I could not remember any more details. However, he thinks he might get two days off in June to attend a wedding. Otherwise, he is essentially working six days each week and tends his own garden on the seventh. I get tired just thinking about it.

We are truly blessed to have such a generous benefactor in The Cougar Group. Their support of the SACG will help us accomplish great things – not just this year but in the future as well. I hope that The Cougar Group will be a great success in the future and be able to help us out again someday with volunteers and other support. That is, of course, more likely to hapen if all of our readers and supporters stop by its newest store on 1515 Alum Creek Drive (just feet south of the I-70 entrance/exit ramp) to wish them well, check out the Cougar line of mowers and patronize a new, local business.

SACG To Celebrate Grand Opening Celebration of The Cougar Group HQ

Faithful readers know how blessed we have been at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and I am writing to tell you about another blessing: The Cougar Group. Bill Dawson, the Director of Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green Community Garden program called me a few weeks ago about a company which was locating its new headquarters a hop, skip and a jump down the road from us on Alum Creek Drive. As part of the celebration for the opening of its new HQ on April 30, the company wanted to do something to help a nearby community garden which involved raffling off a lawn mower. Of course, he thought of us. He told me that the company's name was The Cougar Group – and he insisted that he was not making a reference to my age or marital statusJ I had visions of me and my hardy group of volunteers selling the tickets . . . .

I then met with Bill the company's outside public relations consultant, Kathy Wient. She explained that the company would be holding an invitation-only special event (with a live band and BBQ) and would be raffling off one of their super high-end, commercial quality push lawn mowers -- specifically a Cougar C19AL -- as a fundraiser at the event to benefit the SACG. All I had to do was show up with a picture board with lots of pretty pictures of the SACG and tell everyone there how wonderful we are (an easy task, to be sure). How great is that? I would be thrilled with $100, but Kathy is much more ambitious than that – bless her heart. Keep your fingers crossed for us on April 30.

Bill will also be attending to promote GTG and community gardening in general. Ms. Anthony also hopes to attend as a show of support.

But it gets better. Kathy and Mike Watkins – the President of The Cougar Group – were among the first volunteers to arrive to help us dig out the SACG for the beginning of the 2010 gardening season on April 10. Mike helped dig holes to plant our four new rose bushes and five new blueberry bushes. This is easier said than done when you consider the layers of brick and concrete which are only three inches below ground. Kathy helped us pick up litter and spread mulch on the pathways. Neither of them could have been any nicer.

We are very excited about our new neighbors and hope their grand opening celebration, raffle and business are very, very successful.

SACG To Celebrate Grand Opening Celebration of The Cougar Group HQ

Faithful readers know how blessed we have been at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and I am writing to tell you about another blessing: The Cougar Group. Bill Dawson, the Director of Franklin Park Conservatory's Growing to Green Community Garden program called me a few weeks ago about a company which was locating its new headquarters a hop, skip and a jump down the road from us on Alum Creek Drive. As part of the celebration for the opening of its new HQ on April 30, the company wanted to do something to help a nearby community garden which involved raffling off a lawn mower. Of course, he thought of us. He told me that the company's name was The Cougar Group – and he insisted that he was not making a reference to my age or marital statusJ I had visions of me and my hardy group of volunteers selling the tickets . . . .

I then met with Bill the company's outside public relations consultant, Kathy Wient. She explained that the company would be holding an invitation-only special event (with a live band and BBQ) and would be raffling off one of their super high-end, commercial quality push lawn mowers -- specifically a Cougar C19AL -- as a fundraiser at the event to benefit the SACG. All I had to do was show up with a picture board with lots of pretty pictures of the SACG and tell everyone there how wonderful we are (an easy task, to be sure). How great is that? I would be thrilled with $100, but Kathy is much more ambitious than that – bless her heart. Keep your fingers crossed for us on April 30.

Bill will also be attending to promote GTG and community gardening in general. Ms. Anthony also hopes to attend as a show of support.

But it gets better. Kathy and Mike Watkins – the President of The Cougar Group – were among the first volunteers to arrive to help us dig out the SACG for the beginning of the 2010 gardening season on April 10. Mike helped dig holes to plant our four new rose bushes and five new blueberry bushes. This is easier said than done when you consider the layers of brick and concrete which are only three inches below ground. Kathy helped us pick up litter and spread mulch on the pathways. Neither of them could have been any nicer.

We are very excited about our new neighbors and hope their grand opening celebration, raffle and business are very, very successful.

Corporate Community Gardens Can Improve Morale, Health and Reputations

The Society of Human Resources Management website contains an interesting article about how employer-sponsored community gardens can benefit a workplace in a number of ways. First, it creates teamwork as the employees volunteer to work together on the garden (which is generally less stressful than regular work projects). Second, it exposes employees to healthy food (which could reduce employer health costs in the long run when the employees learn to eat healthier food). Some employers harvest food from their gardens, bring it into the employee break rooms and let employees take home as much of the produce as they want for free. The thought is that they will eat fresher and healthier food and appreciate a break on their food bill. Preference is usually given to employees who worked in the garden, but not always. Finally, the garden can contribute to the greater community when produce is donated to area homeless shelters, soup kitchins and food banks (like through the Plant a Row program).

The article highlighted that start-up costs were reasonable and decreased after the first year. Some employers actually hire and pay part-time Garden Managers to maintain the garden when the employees lose interest (like during the hot summer months). Another alternative could be to partner with another community garden to develop a win-win solution. The non-profit community garden could help with the employer's garden in return for financial support from the employer.

[Editor's Note: The May 5, 2011 edition of Columbus Alive highlighted a new local business which will help any company create a gardening program (even in containers) and coach your employees into helping. Check out Green Thumb Revolution if you want more information.

You can read the article for yourself at SHRM's website.

Corporate Community Gardens Can Improve Morale, Health and Reputations

The Society of Human Resources Management website contains an interesting article about how employer-sponsored community gardens can benefit a workplace in a number of ways. First, it creates teamwork as the employees volunteer to work together on the garden (which is generally less stressful than regular work projects). Second, it exposes employees to healthy food (which could reduce employer health costs in the long run when the employees learn to eat healthier food). Some employers harvest food from their gardens, bring it into the employee break rooms and let employees take home as much of the produce as they want for free. The thought is that they will eat fresher and healthier food and appreciate a break on their food bill. Preference is usually given to employees who worked in the garden, but not always. Finally, the garden can contribute to the greater community when produce is donated to area homeless shelters, soup kitchins and food banks (like through the Plant a Row program).

The article highlighted that start-up costs were reasonable and decreased after the first year. Some employers actually hire and pay part-time Garden Managers to maintain the garden when the employees lose interest (like during the hot summer months). Another alternative could be to partner with another community garden to develop a win-win solution. The non-profit community garden could help with the employer's garden in return for financial support from the employer.

[Editor's Note: The May 5, 2011 edition of Columbus Alive highlighted a new local business which will help any company create a gardening program (even in containers) and coach your employees into helping. Check out Green Thumb Revolution if you want more information.

You can read the article for yourself at SHRM's website.