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Seeds of Joy: Divinity-school grad helps church keep its community garden growing
AP Photo
Fred Bahnson has been the director of the Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove for three years.
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Published: February 14, 2009
CEDAR GROVE -- Fred Bahnson, the director of the Anathoth Community Garden, will be spending more time writing about food, faith and gardening than digging in the dirt after winning a fellowship from the Food & Society Policy Fellows Program.
The Anathoth Community Garden, on Lonesome Road about six miles north of Efland, is sponsored by Grace United Methodist Church and is supported by many members of the Cedar Grove community, whether they're members of the church or not.
The garden grew from seeds sown by unexpected tragedy -- the murder of Bill King, 51, who ran Emma's Quick Stop and Bait Shop, just up Mill Creek Road from the garden. King was shot to death in his store in June 2004, and the murder has not been solved.
As a way to heal the Orange County community, Cedar Grove resident Scenobia Taylor donated five acres for a community garden.
It now includes a greenhouse, a children's playhouse, a tool shed surrounded by a large covered deck -- where members gather and have weekly potluck dinners during the growing season -- an herb garden and, of course, rows and rows of compost-enhanced dirt for growing fruits and vegetables.
Bahnson has been the paid director of the garden for three years, basically paying his salary and obtaining materials for the garden's structures through grants that he applied for and won. Supporters have donated money and materials for the garden.
Bahnson, who is a grandson of Mrs. Fred Bahnson Jr. of Winston-Salem, obtained a bachelor's degree in English, followed by a master's in theology from the Divinity School at Duke University. Then he went to Mexico and saw how a group of coffee farmers grew their own food. "I just really fell in love with the agrarian way of life," Bahnson said.
When he returned to the United States, he began learning as much as he could about sustenance farming by working on a farm and by studying as much as he could about it.
"Fred is a really strong leader and he's been doing an excellent job in the management of the Anathoth Community Garden, both in terms of planning what should be in the garden and coordinating the people who have been working in the garden," said Geoff Gledhill, a member of the church and the garden.
"He's also done a real nice job of blending all that with the biblical message in Jeremiah about planting the garden and turning it into a really strong outreach program for Grace Methodist," Gledhill said.
To be a member of the garden, a person or family pays a $5 membership fee and then is required to work two hours a week in the garden.
Jocelyn Patterson, 59, who lives about a mile from the garden, has been spending more than her weekly two hours at the garden. Although she has room for her own garden, she joined because gardening by herself was difficult, and it would have been expensive to buy the fencing to keep the deer out of her own garden.
She's made good friends working at the garden, saved hundreds of dollars on her food bill, taken home bucketfuls of organic produce and felt as if she's been a contributor even though she can no longer push a wheelbarrow.
"One day I did 550 transplants," she said. "They have something that anybody can do."
With the fellowship, which began Jan. 1, Bahnson will reduce his hours at the garden so he can concentrate on writing and spreading the word about church-sponsored community gardens.
"As part of this new class, Fred will work alongside some of the nation's top and emerging leaders on food, agriculture, public health and social justice," said Mark Muller, the director of the Fellows program. "The way food is grown, processed and distributed has a tremendous influence on health, the economy and our culture. The Fellows are building on the momentum for a fresher, healthier, more sustainable and more equitable food system."
Bahnson, 35, is married and has two children. He plans to write articles for magazines and other publications. Two part-time managers and a youth coordinator will take over most of his duties during his fellowship.
He hopes to inspire and educate other church communities and Christians to understand the value of church-supported community gardens.
"I'm honored to receive this fellowship," Bahnson said. "It reflects a growing recognition that churches have a major role to play in fixing our broken food system. I'd like to see the ‘church lawn' become an anachronism; that same piece of soil could be growing tasty collard greens and sweet potatoes for the neighborhood."
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