Partnership opportunities with Marshall County Unity Gardens

Marshall County Unity Gardens is looking for partners to help create a network of well-landscaped vegetable gardens in strategic areas of town where low-income families can access fresh vegetables and fruit for free! There is already one functioning garden next to the Life Enrichment Center on Harrison Street that was very successful last year in helping the local community with over 1,500 pounds of 25 different kinds of vegetables. This garden, Plymouth Unity Gardens (PUG), was blessed with over 500 volunteer hours!

The next location they have started building is a garden three times the size of the PUG. It is called BOLUG and is on the property of the Bread of Life Food Pantry. Currently, they have less than ten volunteers and could use more help! The hope is that churches, community members, and other groups that graciously donate food to the pantry will consider partnering further in different ways.

Partnership opportunities include volunteering time. Currently, there are workdays and weekdays when a Marshall County Unity Garden team member will be at the work site to assist with volunteer needs. The specific workdays are Wednesdays from 1 to 3 pm and Saturdays from 9 to 11 am.

At Plymouth Unity Gardens (PUG), 1305 West Harrison Street, the type of work will be weeding, watering, and ensuring no animal damage.

It will be heavier work at Bread Of Life Unity Gardens (BOLUG), 6770 North Michigan Street, like setting up more raised beds, spreading mulch, and eventually the usual weeding and watering. However, at BOLUG, a fence still needs to be installed to keep deer out, water must be piped in with three spigots, and a greenhouse or tunnel needs to be built to help extend the growing season and start seedlings for the following growing season.

Donations, in general, for both locations include:

• Hoses and hose accessories
• Tools such as hand tools for working in the beds and long-handled tools such as shovels, rakes (both light and heavy ones), hoes, and wheelbarrows
• A small shed to store all the above items at each location
• Fencing material – in particular, deer netting and T – posts 5’ high
• Raised Beds: 12’ x 4’ Galvanized raised beds are the best @ $100 per.
• Seedlings (no seeds) of veggies, herbs, and even flowers in flats or trays
• Plumbing materials to pipe water at BOLUG from the building to the garden (nearly 500’)
• Greenhouse or high tunnel 20’ x 50’ plus supplies and
• Sharing Tables
•  

Monetary gifts are just as practical as the items listed. The larger items—such as the high tunnel, the water system, the raised beds, and the fencing—will likely require monetary donations. The estimated total need for 2025 is $10,000. These funds would cover multiple garden locations.

Sharing tables will be available at each site, and individuals with gardens can drop off their homegrown produce at the Unity Garden locations to share it with others.  

Please consider partnering with this community-based project. As the weather gets warmer and the time to plant draws near, the need for all these opportunities arises quickly.

Contact Roy Danforth, Marshall County Unity Garden Coordinator, at 574-780-6294 or royaleta@gmail.com.  You can also log in, get the Groupme app, and sign in to the volunteer information group. Instructions on how to download the app and add the group can be found here https://tinyurl.com/MarshallCoUnityGardensGroupme: 

If you would like to follow the group on Facebook, visit: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573879380178