14 May 16 • 2019
jn

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

