guest column
Planting
Partnerships
at Yad Ezra

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O

ur mission at Yad Ezra’
s Giving 
Gardens is to provide educational 
opportunities and resources to 
address hunger in our Jewish community 
at its roots, with a focus on healthy and 
sustainable practices. The 
pandemic has not dried up 
our resolve. We have capi-
talized on the nicer weather 
and have been hosting 
classes, providing a socially 
distant way to interact with 
people safely and provide the 
community with knowledge. 
This year, more produce than ever has 
been brought in from local community 
gardens. We have been able to extend 
our reach through partnerships with the 
Hazon Garden Relief Initiative, as well 
as with partner gardens like the Bowers 
School Farm and the Farber Tamarack 
Farm. 
As Giving Gardens flourishes, an 
increased volume and value of produce 
goes to Yad Ezra’
s clients every year. Every 
Yad Ezra delivery gets a taste of the Giving 
Gardens in their package.
The pandemic has tested the reach of 
communities around the world. In Metro 
Detroit, we are so fortunate that our com-
munity has come together to help our own 
as well as our neighbors and friends. At 
Yad Ezra’
s Giving Gardens, we are proud to 
share some of our partnerships which have 
been developed over the past few years 
and have quite literally begun to bear fruit.
Judaism emphasizes the importance 
of community in so many ways. One of 
the most compelling arguments is the 
Talmudic passage that defines an appropri-
ate city in which to live. In order for a city 
to be habitable, it must accommodate the 
needs of all its members, assuring there is 
appropriate care for everyone (Sanhedrin 
17b). 

Our Lady of La Salette Church is our 
neighbor — the church has been a land-
mark in Berkley since the 1920s. The land 
behind the church was not being used; it 
was a flat, expansive lawn. Giving Gardens 
has a new productive partnership with the 
church. They have allowed us to farm their 
land, which we call the Genesis Garden. 
The farmed plot has doubled our growing 
space, adding more than 5,000 square feet 
of garden space. The Genesis Garden is 
currently growing beans, peas, zucchini, 
cucumbers, radish, turnips, lettuce, toma-
toes, eggplant, basil and peppers. All these 
vegetables will be harvested and distribut-
ed to our clients. Not only does this allow 
us to offer more food, it also raises the 
amount of fresh nutritional choices to food 
insecure families who often otherwise eat 
less nutritional foods.
Since the middle of June, Giving 
Gardens has been participating in a 
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) 
partnership. Generously funded by an 
anonymous donor, the Central Detroit 
Christian Farm and Fishery and Fisheye 
Farms have sold Yad Ezra 15 and two full 
shares, respectively, of their farm harvest. 
This amount of fresh produce is enough 
to generously supplement the grocery 
distribution of approximately 35 people. 
Additionally, for every two shares Yad Ezra 
receives, one share is donated to a family 
in the neighborhood in which the CDC 
farm is located. Our Giving Gardens team 
has organized a trial of this 20-week part-
nership with the 35 Yad Ezra clients who 
are also members of our Giving Gardens 
Club. Each client has been receiving a 

weekly distribution of farm fresh produce 
to supplement their regular Yad Ezra 
grocery delivery. The farm produce is 
delivered to Yad Ezra and Giving Gardens 
volunteers and staff divide the shares and 
deliver the produce to our clients/club 
members. 
This is truly an innovative way for Yad 
Ezra to engage in a community effort that 
helps the farmers, who cannot otherwise 
distribute all of their harvest during these 
times, and gives healthy, fresh food to 
food-insecure families in our community. 
We hope that this test program will serve 
as a model for others. The ripple effect of 
helping our clients, helping a local busi-
ness, and helping feed people in other 
communities is rewarding.
Giving Gardens was started at Yad Ezra 
with an amalgam of goals that were all 
rooted in the concept of partnership. We 
had partnered for years with master gar-
deners who grew produce on our property, 
and we have embraced the culture of part-
nership and teamwork that is an inherent 
part of the urban farming and community 
farming culture, as well as celebrating and 
supporting partnerships of other Jewish 
and community organizations that work 
toward sustainability and community edu-
cation. 
We are proud of what Giving Gardens 
gives our clients and welcome any who 
are interested to join us — opportunities 
abound! 

Anyone interested in classes at Giving Gardens is 

welcome to join! Check us out on Facebook 

@YadEzra or Instagram @Yad.Ezra.

Lea Luger

6 | OCTOBER 8 • 2020

Genesis Garden at
Lady of La Salette Church in 
September

Josh bags produce grown 
at Giving Gardens for 
clients.

