Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship, for the Bradford Journal Opinion.
NEWBURY – A large rectangular expanse of dirt sticks out against the green grass by the roadside on Route 5. Four posts protrude from the ground at each corner, marking out a plot of land spanning about 20 by 40 feet. It might not look like much just yet, but this is soon to be a new food garden at the Little Rivers Health Care clinic in Newbury.
Little Rivers hopes to begin planting in the next few weeks, so that in the coming months the garden will yield lettuce, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and more. Staff members are growing a variety of seeds in pots inside the clinic, and are eager to transplant them outside.
According to Emilie Perry, the coordinator of Little Rivers’s Food Is Medicine program, the garden will be entirely run by the clinic’s staff. Its produce will help stock the food shelf inside, which is open to anyone in the community.
“It will be interesting to see how it develops, seeing what people want to put in there and how they are engaging with community members. And each year it will get a little better and have more of an identity in and of itself,” said Perry.
The garden is intended to reduce gaps in access to healthy foods. Even for people who can easily get to supermarkets, the cheapest, longest-lasting, and most accessible foods tend to be less healthy.
“If people are saying ‘I have food in my pantry,’ but it isn’t giving them any kind of nutritional benefit, then it doesn’t really feel like food security,” said Perry. “All of our patients will tell you that they can’t buy fruits and vegetables as much as they would like because they’re too expensive.”
Seventy-five percent of Little Rivers patients have a chronic health condition, most of which can be regulated with a change in diet, according to Perry. The Food Is Medicine program works to address this by delivering fresh produce to patients and collaborating with a dietitian for recommendations. Now, Perry hopes that the Newbury garden will encourage more people to consider eating healthy food.
“The Newbury garden is in a [great] visible spot so that everyone who pulls into the office will see it immediately. I just love the idea of going to your health center and seeing a garden,” Perry said.
Food gardens aren’t new to the area. Just up Route 5 in the village of Wells River, the Rowe Community Garden has been serving the community in a similar way for decades. The project was named for Dr. Harry Rowe, a beloved community leader who passed away in 2012.
According to the Rev. James Merriam, the pastor of the Wells River Congregational Church, Rowe had a piece in almost everything in the village. Merriam said Rowe’s legacy lives on through the garden, bringing the people of Wells River together.
Community members with garden plots grow a mix of produce for themselves, and produce for donation to food shelves at the local library, church, and clinic. On Fridays during the summer, the garden also holds Share the Harvest events in front of the Baldwin Memorial Library, where lower-income families, seniors, and people who just don’t have gardens themselves can come and take whatever they need. According to Merriam, there is no registration, records, or proof of identification required—anyone can help themselves.
In peak months last summer, Merriam filled a wheelbarrow of vegetables up to 20 times a week.
“And it was difficult to wheel, so it might have been 400 pounds. Definitely tons, maybe three or four, of produce as fresh as you can imagine. And very little of it is ever left behind,” he said.
Merriam said that a surprising number of people who come to the church food shelf, at least, do so to overcome the simple obstacle of distance.
“[In Wells River], we went from having a couple of little stores to no stores. And even though the nearest grocery store is about 2 miles away over in New Hampshire, that might as well be 50 miles for a fair number of folks without reliable transport. Across the board, healthy or otherwise, we’re in a food desert, practically speaking,” Merriam said.
Merriam said that the garden is also part of a network of connections that keeps people close, giving Wells River a stronger sense of civic culture.
“It’s across communities, and social lines, the people who benefit. Last year, the tomatoes probably made it into hundreds of households,” he said.
Back in Newbury village, Little Rivers hopes that their garden will foster connections in a similar way. Already, getting the land prepared has been a group effort. The clinic had a volunteer offer to rototill the soil, and has received donations of manure. They also received a handful of wooden pallets, which will be painted by a student from a local elementary school, according to Lisa Pierson, Little Rivers’s business coordinator. Soon, Little Rivers staff will begin planting seeds and sprouts in the clinic garden.
In the future, said Pierson, other students could also help out in the garden to complete community service, and it might provide a cheerful view to residents at the Frances Atkinson Residence for the Retired across the street.
“We’re committed to this. We’re going to try it and we’re going to do our best,” said Pierson. “Let’s see how we can help the community.”