Since 2006, FLCR has used its grounds off Franklin Square on the Glen St. side for a vegetable garden that also functions to host neighborhood gardening. The community garden project on Glen Street, lead by Bruce Fletcher, is part of our larger “Green Ministry” . The community garden serves a number of distinct functions
On a first-come, first-served basis, neighbors who seek to garden are assigned plots which have been previously tilled and continue to be watered by the church. The church plantings in the garden serve to provide produce for local soup kitchens, for the church’s Weds. night pasta suppers and for the Friendship Service Center They expose youngsters to the notion of planting and harvesting, sowing and reaping. Living within a city children are often unaware of the cycles of nature. This attunes them to a world heretofore unknown. They provide food which with a token carbon footprint. Translated, this means that energy was used to fertilize it, to package it, to transport these vegetables is minimal . Thus, litle Carbon Dioxide was released into the atmosphere, between the production and consumption of these calories. And finally, the element of planting returns us back to our most basic, primordial selves. What it means to be part of God’s greater creation. For in the Book of Genesis, , we are taught. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. An hour of planning reminds us of the human labor that good food entails . And that to fully participate in God creation, we must work and dedicate ourselves to the task at hand. 
