14 May 16 • 2019
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T
here’
s no place like it. Where else
but Jewish Detroit will you find a
food pantry like Yad Ezra?
Google kosher food pantry: Yad Ezra
is still one of a kind — the only kosher
food pantry in the country with an
onsite greenhouse. That greenhouse
not only provides a harvest of fresh
produce for its clients, it has also blos-
somed into the Giving Gardens Club
— a full-scale community gardening
resource.
Now in its second year, the Giving
Gardens Club, based at Yad Ezra, pro-
vides seeds and seedlings, year-round
workshops and volunteer support to
home gardeners in Metro Detroit.
“
As Jews, we hold the seeds of our
ancient wisdom in the concept of the
commons — building sustainable and
resilient communities,” says Carly
Sugar, Giving Gardens director. “If
you’
ve ever grown zucchini from a
seedling, you know that just one plant
will provide plenty for your family,
enough to share with your neighbors
and quite possibly some to spare for the
food pantry down the street.
“Modeled after Keep Growing
Detroit’
s Garden Resource Program,
the Giving Garden Club is our way of
lowering barriers of entry to gardening
to individuals in our area and provid-
ing more access to local, fresh, healthy
produce to our community and to our
food pantry.”
A PLACE TO DIG IN
As Sugar explains, Yad Ezra is “really
good at doing the work” of a food pan-
try. By the numbers, Yad Ezra serves
1,500 client families — approximately
2,000 individuals every month — and
distributes more than 1 million pounds
of food a year. Working in partner-
ship with food banks like Gleaners
and Forgotten Harvest, Yad Ezra also
provides fresh produce such as onions,
potatoes, cabbage and fruit daily.
With the addition of the Max M. and
Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation Giving
Gardens project and the build-out of
the Geri Lester Greenhouse in 2016,
the harvest from the garden at Yad Ezra
has been a game-changer.
“There are other food pantries and
soup kitchens with gardens in our area
and we continue to borrow from those
models,” Sugar says. “We’
re inspired
by the Capuchin Soup Kitchen’
s
Earthworks Urban Farm and the beau-
tiful culture they’
ve built in Detroit.
“In 2018, to build our own com-
munity garden resource program, we
brought in Lindsay Pielack, co-director
at Keep Growing Detroit, as a consul-
tant. Lindsay has worked in the field
of community gardening and urban
greening for 20 years; she is an expert
in educational and family programming
and has grown an amazing program,
now serving more than 1,600 gardens
around the city. With Lindsay’
s help,
we’
ve taken the best of her program and
adapted it to focus specifically on our
client base, our volunteers and support-
ers in the Jewish community.”
Thanks to Jewish Detroit’
s commu-
nity resources, including grants from
the Jeffrey Farber Family Foundation,
David and Nanci Farber Family
Foundation and the D. Dan and Betty
Kahn Foundation, membership to the
Giving Gardens Club is free to clients
of Yad Ezra and Bridge Card users, and
it’
s open to everyone in the community
for a suggested donation of $5 to $20.
The benefits of membership are plenti-
ful and include:
• 8 varieties of seedlings and 16
varieties of seeds, grown and pack-
aged in the Geri Lester Greenhouse.
Pick up dates: Sunday, May 19, 12-2
p.m.; Monday, May 20, 10 a.m.-
noon; Tuesday, May 21, 6-8 p.m.;
Wednesday, May 22, 10 a.m.-noon
• Invitations to educational events
and monthly workshops — fresh
ideas on food prep and preservation,
gardening and greening, holiday
cooking and more
• Home gardening support, consulta-
tion and additional resources
• Toolshare: a “library” of gardening
tools-to-go, on loan to share
To be a part of the Giving Gardens
Club, fill out an application at yadezra.
org/giving-gardens/get-involved or
email or call Carly Sugar at carly@
yadezra.org or (248) 548-3663. ■
This story first appeared on Federation’
s
myjewishdetroit.org.
A Giving
Gardens
Club
Planting the seeds
of change in
the community
at Yad Ezra.
jews d
in
the
Mark Your Calendar
• May 19: Spring Trip to Farber Farm
with Hazon and Tamarack Camps,
1-5 p.m. (includes commute time to
Tamarack Camps). Tamarack’
s Farber
Farm, Hazon & Yad Ezra’
s Giving Gardens
team up to bring you a day of Jewish
farm programming. Tour the farm, meet
the chickens, harvest, cook and eat to
celebrate the coming growing season.
Carpool from Yad Ezra leaves at 1 p.m.
• July 14, 21 & 28 and Aug.4: Grow
Forth: A 4-Part Learn-to-Garden
Series, 2-4 p.m. A Jewish Gardening
101 series co-taught by Giving Gardens
and Hazon. Participants will leave with
the knowledge and confidence to start
or improve their own home garden.
Gardening instruction, hands-on prac-
tice, skill-share, and Jewish frameworks
around themes of soil, planting, tending
and harvesting.
LEFT: Up with the micro-greens in the early
morning light, this is Carly Sugar, director of
Giving Gardens at Yad Ezra. ABOVE: Toolshare is
one of the many resources available to
members of the Giving Gardens Club.
VIVIAN HENOCH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
PHOTOS BY JOHN HARDWICK
B