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Faith groups unite to fight hunger
By LINDA M. LINONIS
north lima
Food for thought and plenty of information to digest — that’s what about 25 representatives of faith-based organizations have on their plates after attending a meeting on Cultivating Roots of Hope.
The session Thursday at Common Ground Church Community of the Presbyterian Church USA was geared to faith groups that work to alleviate hunger and poverty in the Mahoning Valley.
Pastor Steve Fortenberry shared background on Common Ground, which aims to be “a community resource.” He said it bought the former Mellinger’s nursery, 2310 W. South Range Road, in 2004.
The church set up Goodness Grows, a nonprofit educational agriculture center on the 31 acres, “to support urban agricultural efforts, address local poverty and address local and world hunger issues,” according to its website, www.cgnl.net.
Other hunger-fighting groups also were represented at the event.
Goodness Grows (www.goodnessgrows.net) started a Community Supported Agriculture project in which participants, currently 15 families, pay a certain amount of money and contribute volunteer hours toward a vegetable garden. They reap fresh produce as it is harvested.
With a partner — Flying High Inc. of Youngstown, a community service and development organization that works with at-risk/disadvantaged young people — Goodness Grows hired two young men to work in the gardens and train in market gardening.
Shandell Jamal of Gov. Ted Strickland’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives offered information on Together Ohio, which serves “as a central point of contact for community groups, nonprofits and governmental agencies interested in forming partnerships to meet needs, deliver services and solve community problems.”
Jamal said one program, Feed Ohio, offers grants for summer food-service programs to provide meals and enrichment to low-income children. In 2008 and 2009, 60 summer food and learning sites were funded.
Tom Snyder of the Ohio Cooperative Development Center said the USDA-funded center aims to establish new food cooperatives and strengthen existing cooperatives to create economic development in rural Ohio.
Brad Masi, executive director of New Agrarian Center in Oberlin, a nonprofit organization focused on developing a sustainable local food system in Northeast Ohio, said the center worked with the Ohio State University Extension in Cleveland to develop City Fresh.
This initiative operates neighborhood, volunteer-run food distribution centers and an urban- market garden program that turned vacant city lots into productive gardens. Its website is www.gotthenac.org.