Our garden has reached a milestone today. While we were happy to welcome some members of the Columbus Realtors to volunteer in our garden this morning, we had a pleasant surprise by lunchtime. We were actually able to serve some of the produce from our garden. Families staying at the House who were here for lunch, were able to be the first to try some of the butter lettuce grown and it got rave reviews!
This moment has been a long time coming. Last year, the idea sprouted and began to take form when it was realized that some of the dilapidated houses on property acquired by our charity, had to come down. That opened up a 10,000 square-foot space and the garden location was set. Over time, our volunteers came to embrace this project, including a long time volunteer, Bill Mount, an avid gardener at his own home, began to come to the Ronald McDonald House a little more often to prepare the soil for gardening. It was during a tough time because the pandemic had shut down group activity in the state of Ohio. But we were able to get small groups, distancing and wearing masks, to keep progress in the garden. We even had a group of doctors recently helping plant in our garden.
There’s still much more to do and the garden will need maintained. In the coming months, we hope to be able to have more volunteers helping in the garden while keeping physical distance and keeping this ten-thousand-square-foot garden growing!
Thanks to these business supporters for helping make the garden possible:
-Acorn Farms
-Rural King
-Columbus Realtors
– Wholesale Stone Supply
-Geotex
-The Columbus Foundation
-Scotts MiracleGro Foundation
-Franklin Park Conservatory
