Take 30 strong men, a lot of soil, and tools, and in a day, a community garden grows.

That’s what happened on April 18 at the Valley-Shore Y’s Garden Build Day. Thirty Coast Guard cadet volunteers joined others from the Y to expand the Y community garden’s 18 planting beds to 30, increasing the amount the garden can grow and donate to the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries (SSKP).

“We’re really, really excited to nearly double our planting area,” said Debbie Quinn, the Y’s controller and Community Garden coordinator. “We hope this will also double our produce yield this season.”

Each of the garden’s 30 planting beds is 24 feet long and four feet wide.

To protect the mounded beds from hungry animals, a deer fence was installed around the garden’s perimeter last year to protect the produce in the first growing season. The fence project was paid for with funds from a Westbrook Foundation grant. To widen the planting area, part of the fence was peeled back. With a few new fence sections and poles, the missing section will be re-installed around the garden once the drip irrigation system of the original beds is extended to the new beds.

The fence around the garden will protect the produce and plants for animal invaders, but without volunteer time to plant, weed, and harvest, there would be no garden. Last season, nearly 60 volunteers donated about 1,000 hours of time to make the garden project a success.

The community stepped up to support the community garden every step of the way.

“Riggio’s Garden Center helps us by growing the seedlings we plant in the garden,” said Quinn.

Soil to build the new planting beds and compost to nurture the soil were donated by local businesses and contractors.

In its inaugural 2014 season, the Y garden yielded more than one ton of produce that was donated to the SSKP pantry at St. Marks’ Church for distribution to its clients. More than 160 struggling families and individuals come to the pantry each week to receive the one free bag of groceries they need just to get by.

With more Y garden beds to plant, tend, and harvest this season than last, Quinn would love to add more volunteers to her garden crew list. A big planting day is planned soon. And every week, on Tuesday mornings, volunteers are needed to harvest the freshly picked produce so it can be delivered to the St. Mark’s Food Pantry for distribution. This Westbrook Food Pantry site is open each Tuesday afternoon for grocery distributions.

Anyone interested in helping out in the Y’s Community Garden should send Debbie Quinn an email at dquinn@vsymca.org.

One Garden Spurred Others

Still going strong is the local community garden that started it all, the Common Good Garden at Grace Episcopal Church on Main Street in Old Saybrook, founded in 2001.

Through its own website (www.commongoodgardens.org) and Facebook page (search Common Good Gardens), this 14-year-old venture promotes its mission of raising fresh produce for the less fortunate and connects with volunteers. Information about volunteer opportunities is listed here. Blog entries comment on the garden, what’s growing, and provides tips about how to grow certain vegetables successfully.

Through the sharing of organizational tips and garden experience, Commons Goods Gardens’s leaders have also educated others and helped them to start successful community gardens in their own communities.

Volunteers from the Episcopal Church of the Holy Advent in Clinton have built their own community garden, Food for All, to benefit SSKP. Implementing good practices developed at Common Goods Gardens, this garden’s leaders installed a drip irrigation system to minimize water usage. To enrich the soil, they reached out to the town to get compost. And for the heavy garden work, like the Common Goods Garden coordinators, this group also reached out to the Coast Guard for volunteers to help with the heavy work in a garden build day.

“What’s amazing is how many schools, faith communities, farms, and individuals over the past three years have started donating fresh produce to the soup kitchen,” said SSKP Executive Director Patty Dowling.

When the first fresh vegetables start arriving at the food pantry sites and in the pantry grocery bags each season, Dowling said, “There is a palpable buzz among the food pantry’s guests. The guests feel that the community is coming together to show that they care about them.”

Dowling said that volunteers help teach the food pantry guests how to use and cook the freshly grown vegetables they receive each week, since they may not be familiar with all of them.

“It is a powerful, powerful thing,” said Dowling. “We’re beyond grateful.”

SSKP still has plenty of need and the capacity to accept more donations of food items and fresh produce.

Anyone interested in donating food or fresh produce from their own garden or a community garden should visit www.shorelinesoupkitchens.org and click on the “Donate Food” tab.