I wear my overalls
I feel incredible
I’m plantin’ vegetables
For the hungry in the world
You may not know the tune to “Thrift Shop,” a Macklemore song that goes with these lyrics penned by Mitzvah Garden volunteer Gabriella Sonnenschein. But one doesn’t have to know the tune to understand that the lyrics express in simple words just how volunteers feel when they work in the garden.
This is the fourth year the Mitzvah Garden has used a parcel of land owned by The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah to grow food to feed the hungry in our community. The garden now covers nearly half of an acre, having expanded from 10,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet since its inception. In the past three years it has yielded more than 15,000 pounds of food that have been donated to a variety of pantries including the JFS Food Pantry, Yachad-The Kosher Food Pantry, Grandview Assistance Program and the Blue Valley Multi-Service Center.
It’s estimated between 400 and 500 people volunteered in the garden last year alone. These volunteers are shepherded by Andrew Kaplan, Larry Lehman and Ken Sonnenschein. The three co-chairs work together hand in hand, with Kaplan managing the garden’s administration and finances, Lehman overseeing the gardening and Sonnenschein providing the Jewish education. Almost every time a group visits the garden to volunteer, a mini-Torah lesson relating to the season or the activity itself is provided.
The garden has been such a success, according to its co-chairs, because it’s one of the rare communal activities that is multi-generational. Volunteers range from children to seniors and come from every synagogue in the community, summer camps, organizations, the Jewish Society for Service and most youth groups.
There are two other reasons why the garden is a success according to its co-chairs.
“People can actually see the fruits of their labor and everyone loves to get their hands dirty!” Lehman said.
Volunteers are there every Sunday starting in early March by 9 a.m.
“By the time the August heat hits, we’re here by 7 a.m.,” Lehman said.
Regular volunteers will notice several new things this year at the garden. The first is the new path leading from the parking lot to the garden built by Tommy Poskin as part of his Eagle Scout project. He is a fourth-generation member of B’nai Jehudah who will be confirmed later this month and has served as a madrich at the congregation.
“Without this path, it was difficult to actually get to the garden from the parking lot,” Kaplan pointed out.
The garden has three planting seasons and produces such crops as lettuce, beets, Swiss chard, onions, potatoes, spinach, peppers and tomatoes. In a year or two it will produce apples and pears as well. Eight semi-dwarf apple and pear trees were planted in April. They are expected to bear fruit over a span of 25 to 30 years and yield about 12,000 pounds of fruit. Kaplan said it should take a year or two before they bear fruit and will be good producers by years four and five. “We hope, someday, to have an entire orchard,” Kaplan said.
True to his duty as garden educator, Sonnenschein led the group in the Shehechiyanu prayer as the trees were being planted.
“Blessed are You who has kept us, sustained us and brought us to this special moment,” Sonnenschein said.
Last summer’s drought was tough for the garden and some of the crops didn’t survive. The crops that did survive yielded much less useable produce than normal. Even the bees didn’t produce any honey.
Bees were brought to the garden a couple of years ago to help pollinate the plants. The bees make up a total of three colonies, which Kaplan said is all that the city of Overland Park allows. The hives will be maintained by Aaron Pfefer this year.
The drought meant the crops needed to be watered a lot. So B’nai Jehudah donated a considerable amount of water to help the garden. For that reason the congregation received the garden’s Golden Trowel award earlier this year.
“B’nai Jehudah is extremely generous when it comes to watering the garden and last year it was expensive,” Sonnenschein said.
This year a drip irrigation system is being added to help lower watering costs. This water capture system required the construction of a 30-feet by 40-feet open air structure. Plastic totes hold 4,000 gallons of rain water that can be distributed through a solar powered pumping system through several thousand feet of drip irrigation hoses that will provide approximately 25 percent of watering needs for the garden.
Kaplan said that $23,000 was raised from the community to build and install this system, which was developed by an Israeli company formerly run by Kibbutz Na’an in Israel and now owned by NanDanJain, a company in India. It took volunteers a year and a half to take this from an idea to reality. It was paid for by grants from BBYO, J-Lead, Flo Harris Foundation, B’nai Jehudah’s Brotherhood and Sisterhood and individual donors.
Funds for the garden itself have come from a variety of sources including Menorah Legacy Foundation, the Herman Levikow Foundation and the B’nai Tzedek Shuk.
Among other things, that money has paid to fence, plow, organically fertilize, seed, weed, and mulch the crops in the garden. During that time the “farmers,” as Kaplan refers to the volunteers, have also developed a leaf compost process to naturally incorporate much needed nutrients back into the soil. As a testament to its success, the garden was named Johnson County’s best community garden by 435 South magazine.
Kaplan attributes a lot of the garden’s success to Ben Sharda of the Kansas City Community Gardens.
“We needed help and he was that guy who taught us how to garden. He has a wealth of knowledge that helped us get to the next level,” Kaplan said.
The original Mitzvah Garden, a 640-square-foot plot of land located on the North side of Village Shalom, is also still active. Established 13 years ago, Sonnenschein said this year squash, gourds and herbs will be planted in it to be used for a sukkah project being organized in conjunction with the Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art.