The Giving Garden
Lynn and Cynthia Wallace
As I stood with Sarah McGingley under a July sun, surrounded by zinnias, sunflowers, basil, sage and thyme, looking over an acre of potato hills and 20 volunteers picking squash and tying tomato vines all around, I’m speechless (a rare incident). Sarah is fielding questions from volunteers about where to place boxes, who is volunteering and how high the tomato vines should be , I’m still speechless.
Every day, I drive pass the 107 acres of green expanse owned by Franklin First United Methodist Church (FFUMC) with no idea that tucked behind century old oaks and maples is The Giving Garden.
What is The Giving Garden? As the name implies, it’s a 5-acre garden filled with squash, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, okra, green beans, spinach, kale, onions, peas, potatoes and lots of other stuff your Mama said was good for you. There’s also herbs and flowers all grown for the expressed purpose of giving away. Having begun as a pumpkin patch in 2009, today The Giving Garden provides partners like Community Child Care, Meals on Wheels, Graceworks, Second Harvest Food Bank, One Generation Away, Daughters of the King and many more with healthy, organically cultivated produce.
A few statistics about The Giving Garden:
20 tons – the amount of produce given away each year
6,000 - the number of plants started each year
100s - the number of vases of flowers given to people who receive Meals on Wheels
700 – the number of sweet potato shoots eaten by deer in just one night (apparently doing God’s work does not mean He stops the deer from enjoying the fruits of your labor)
The Saturday that I visited The Giving Garden dozens of volunteers, kindergarteners to retirees, worked side-by-side picking produce and pulling weeds for a greater cause. Or as, Trish, one of the volunteers said, “Our mission is to feed people and we’re gonna’!” All the pickers and pluckers are not from FFUMC. Some are neighbors, others come from Page High School, Williamson County Master Gardeners, Holy Family Catholic Church and City Service Mission just to name a few of the organizations who play a role in growing 40,000 pounds of vegetables each year.
One volunteer in particular, Lynn Wallace, who Sarah called a “God send,” has greatly impacted The Giving Garden. As mentioned, the garden began as a pumpkin patch and was the brain child of Michael Jones. Michael, the son of an extension agent, was the passionate driver of the growing work for several years. When Michael became ill and could no longer lead the charge, there were concerns about next steps, sustainability and direction.
Who shows up in Franklin, from Louisiana, to marry his childhood sweetheart? Lynn Wallace. Lynn just happens to have enjoyed a long career of teaching organic and sustainable farming practices all over the world. As Albert Einstein said, “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
There is so much more to this story, like the partnership with Franklin Farmer’s Market to find plates for unpurchased produce, the weekly potlucks for partners and volunteers, the gardening classes and the cooking classes. There’s Rita Venable, author of Butterflies of Tennessee, who is hands-on making sure the right plants are in the right place. Oh, and on the other side of the zinnias, Cynthia Wallace, Lynn’s wife and childhood sweetheart, is building God’s Little Acre, a space designed to teach children about nutrition and sustainable gardening.
It seems to me that lots of folks are being fed, in lots of ways, by that patch of land on the edge of Downtown Franklin.
If you are interested in learning more about The Giving Garden and/or volunteering go to https://franklinfumc.org/serve/local-outreach/the-giving-garden/