26 | AUGUST 4 • 2022
OUR COMMUNITY
F
or the previous two sea-
sons, Yad Ezra’s Giving
Gardens program has
thrived in its partnership with
the nearby property owned by
Our Lady of La Salette Church
in Berkley by planting crops in
their side lot, land referred to by
them as the “Genesis Garden.
”
Due to the success of the
partnership, the church has
granted Yad Ezra permission to
expand to the farming property
around their old playground.
Giving Gardens, a program of
the Max M. Marjorie S. Fisher
Foundation, is an integral
part of Yad Ezra’s food pantry.
Giving Gardens’ programs edu-
cate the community about the
concept of farm-to-table food
and offer resources and oppor-
tunities to encourage people to
eat more fresh produce and be
more self-sufficient.
The collaboration — even
before the expansion — has
allowed Yad Ezra to produce far
more food for its clients than
before and was also extremely
helpful during the pandemic.
“It gave us an opportunity to
still have volunteers — because
it was outside and we could
socially distance and the space
was larger,
” said Josh Gordon,
Giving Gardens manager. “We
were able to use that space to
increase our volunteer count at
a time when it was hard to find
places to volunteer and to have
volunteers inside.
”
This year’s expansion takes
place on the side lot of the
property where the Genesis
Garden already was along
with the new playground
side. The playground space
sat vacant for a while on the
campus of a school that’s no
longer open.
The expansion dramat-
Almost
Doubled
Giving Gardens adds more space to grow
produce to feed the community.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
COURTESY OF YAD EZRA
A view from the
sky of Giving
Gardens last
year, before the
expansion.
The new playground-
side garden space that
is now open to Yad
Ezra’s Giving Gardens.