Earlier this year, I announced that we would be putting even greater focus on making our hometown of Baltimore a demonstration site for what grassroots, faith-led food justice work looks like.
Many of our member churches in our city became inactive or inconsistent after the pandemic. The “faithful few” that were keeping things going before the advent of COVID-19 had gotten even smaller and limited capacity at the church made it more difficult for ministries to place focus on food growing efforts. This was not just the case in Baltimore, but our member churches across the nation were having similar experiences.
Our team recognized that starting church gardens was one thing, but helping churches to SUSTAIN their food growing initiatives passed the initial excitement was something different. We saw that our churches needed more help in keeping their gardens going, planning high quality farmer’s markets and organizing for food justice in their local communities. So I came up with the idea to basically start “interning” at the gardens of our member churches in Baltimore. I envisioned myself as a “gardener-in-residence” that would help churches to reinvigorate and sustain their garden ministries.
I first launched this pilot experience in the Spring of 2023 at New Creation Christian Church in east Baltimore. I met with the pastor (Apostle Claxton), they provided me the keys to the garden gate, access to ministry leaders who could support and the room to do what I needed to do without being unnecessarily slowed down by church politics. In addition to showing up to work the land two to three times per week, I also helped them to better integrate their garden into the life and ministry of their church. For example, they have run a food pantry for decades and shared with me that they wanted more fruit and vegetables in the food bank boxes that they were giving away. Their garden had been growing fruit and vegetables for years, but was never connected to their food distribution ministry. These two ministries – the garden and the pantry – operate 25 feet from one another, but were not working together. I helped them to connect these ministries in mutually beneficial ways. We started including the plums, figs, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and greens from their church garden into the collection of food that they give out twice per week. On the surface it seemed simple, but it took work to help them think through the steps, meet with the appropriate people in the respective ministries and then execute. I helped them to use what they had and what they were already doing to satisfy their need for more fruits and vegetables. In addition, we helped bring media attention to their garden, brought more volunteers and finally we attracted a funder that has pledged to make financial investments in the church’s growing space while also bringing a whole new community of volunteers on a consistent basis. So far, this pilot approach of focusing on one site at a time to grow their capacity to sustain their efforts is working!
Now, I’m decreasing my time at New Creation while increasing my focus on another church in Baltimore – Allen AME Church. Just like at New Creation, I’m going to establish a schedule for gardening at Allen AME, organize neighbors to help, attract media attention, volunteers, partnerships and funders that can work with us to bring the fullest potential of this site to life! We’re going to bring focus, excitement and energy. The garden will be integrated into the life of the church and not just an ancillary optional program that is not deeply aligned with our Christian witness. I’ll teach Bible studies, preach sermons, and organize people of faith to see this land as a sanctuary. I’ll ask God to help make this space a site for deep individual and communal transformation.
I envision Baltimore, Maryland to soon be a destination city for those wanting to be inspired by the work and witness of organized Black churches eradicating the root causes of hunger while supporting the development of people-powered, just food systems.
Stay tuned as we continue the work of not just starting, but SUSTAINING the work of food justice ministry!
Rev. Heber Brown, III aka “Gardener-In-Residence”