A Roanoke Parish’s Giving Garden Has Grown From 60 Pounds to More Than 24,000

Every time Msgr. Patrick Golden walks across the parking lot between the rectory and the church at Our Lady of Nazareth in Roanoke, Virginia, he passes a fenced garden of raised beds. Whatever is growing there, almost none of it stays at the parish.

“It gives me a sense of ‘humble pride’ to see it,” Golden, the parish’s pastor, told The Catholic Virginian, the newspaper of the Diocese of Richmond, in a September 9 feature. “They are doing something with their hands to help people; it’s visible and tangible. And it makes a statement to the community that we are feeding the poor.”

The parish calls it the Giving Garden. Its produce goes to shelters and food pantries across the Roanoke Valley, and according to a WDBJ7 report in August, the garden will pass more than 24,000 pounds of food harvested since it began.

A pastor’s idea, and a hunger for change

The garden traces back to the parish’s late pastor, Msgr. Joseph Lehman, known to parishioners as Father Joe. He and others proposed it in 2014 as a way to put faith into action by growing fresh produce for people in need. When the garden was first planted, he held a blessing ceremony, and the parish has kept that tradition going, often pairing it with the blessing of animals on the feast of St. Francis each October.

“Father Joe has really been at the heart of this initiative,” said Cyndy Unwin, a parishioner and master gardener who chairs the garden committee. “We talk about him all the time, and I feel his presence there.”

The first harvest, in 2015, came to about 60 pounds, according to The Catholic Virginian. What changed things was a parish series on poverty in America called Hunger for Change, presented in 2017. Interest grew afterward and more volunteers signed up.

Catherine Black, who took part in that series and now serves as the garden’s information manager, said it shocked her to learn how widespread hunger is in the United States and what causes it. “I now understand how some things can quickly throw a person over the edge into poverty,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can’t change the world, but I can do this.’ People on God’s earth should not be hungry, and children should not be forgotten.”

From a small plot to 34 raised beds

In 2018 the parish took on an $18,000 expansion that grew the garden from 140 square feet to 960. The project added 34 raised beds designed by parishioner Dale Hemberger, along with commercial fencing and an irrigation system. Most of the money came from a $10,000 legacy grant left by a parishioner. Other parishioners raised $4,000 through donations, bake sales, and T-shirt sales, and Eagle Scouts helped with the work, WDBJ reported.

Help also came from down the road. The Rev. Brent T. Williams of nearby Colonial Presbyterian Church, which runs its own giving garden, advised on the project and helped bring in another $1,400 in grants and donations. Two congregations from different traditions compared notes on raised beds so more neighbors could eat.

The results have been steady. The 2025 season produced more than 2,700 pounds, thanks to more than 700 volunteer hours. The beds held broccoli, cabbage, peppers, onions, beans, tomatoes, squash, carrots, collards, kale, and spinach. Black said the choice of crops is deliberate. “It’s important to offer food that most people know and like,” she said.

Over the years the harvest has gone to Roanoke Area Ministries, whose RAM House is a day shelter that serves lunch and offers a place to shower, as well as the St. Francis Food Pantry, the Salem Food Pantry, Christian Soldiers Food Pantry, and other groups serving hungry families in the valley. When those partners have more fresh food than they can use late in the season, the gardeners sell produce to parishioners at small farmers’ markets in the fellowship hall. Most of that money goes back to the same agencies, and some helps pay for the next year’s garden.

Counting twice

Charles Brown leads one of the volunteer teams. He told WDBJ that the totals can sneak up on him. “We’ll go through the week and you see 30 pounds here, 30 pounds here, 30 pounds here,” he said. “At the end of the week, sometimes I have to count twice. I’m like, did we really pull out 170 pounds out of our garden this week? And it’s just such an incredible feeling.”

Brown, who leans on more experienced volunteers for gardening know-how, said the key is a willingness to serve. “Being able to be involved in your worship community and being able to get involved in the community as a whole, I think, is what we are all called to do, just to serve each other and love each other,” he said.

The work itself has shaped his faith. “It deepens my faith, reminding me that true growth requires time, patience, and care,” he told The Catholic Virginian. “Just as seeds need sunlight, water, and nurturing to flourish, my faith thrives when I trust in God’s timing and tend to it daily. Each stage of the season brings to mind the parable of the sower.”

The garden runs on people more than on any single technique. Unwin said the gardeners have learned sustainable practices, careful watering, and how to build soil with organic materials, but she gives the credit to the volunteers. More than 80 of them are split into four teams that rotate duties; WDBJ put the number this summer at close to 100. Planning starts each February and work continues into November. No experience is required, and someone can help as little as once a month.

“I hear people comment about how much they’re learning and the value of meeting new people who attend different Masses,” Unwin said. “I’m also learning new things myself each year, too, when we see what works and what doesn’t work as well.”

Three brothers on harvest day

Some of the most faithful helpers are young. Martin Lucas, now 20, first saw the garden when he started going to Boy Scout troop meetings at the church in middle school. He is not a parishioner, but he signed up anyway. His younger brothers, Henry, now 16, and Conrad, now 11, followed him.

“The younger boys saw him leaving for the garden, and they said, ‘Can I go? Can I help?’ And they’ve all loved it,” said their father, Abel Lucas. He and his wife, Aimee, have worked in the garden alongside them. Their home garden has grown too, with pumpkins, tomatoes, potatoes, and lettuce the boys wanted to try.

“Their favorite days are harvest days at the Giving Garden,” Abel Lucas said. “They’re always surprised at how much food the garden produces. They like knowing the food helps hungry people.”

Other volunteers describe what keeps them coming back in quieter terms. Mike McAllister said the morning harvests remind him of “the beauty and bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables,” and bring him “peace and a new awareness of God’s abundant love.” Joanne Hawley, who has volunteered since the early days, pointed to need close to home. Food insecurity in Southwest Virginia, she said, is almost three percent higher than the average for Virginia. “I volunteer to model the example set by Our Lord in feeding the hungry and to strengthen our communities,” she said.

Bringing the idea home

Not every church has a pastor with a vision, a legacy gift, and room for 34 beds. The Giving Garden began much smaller, though, at 140 square feet and a 60-pound first harvest, and grew one season at a time.

For home gardeners, the simplest version of the same idea is to plant a little extra and give it away. AmpleHarvest.org, a free national registry, helps gardeners find nearby food pantries that accept fresh produce, along with the days and times they take donations. The site lists more than 8,500 participating pantries in all 50 states. Here in Arizona’s low desert, October is when cool-season crops like the ones that filled Roanoke’s beds last year go in the ground: kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, and spinach. An extra row now could become a pantry delivery by January.

For Golden, the garden carries its own lesson. “We must always remember that a seed has to die to rise to new life,” he said. “Jesus often talks about seeds. It’s pretty amazing: from one small seed, a huge tree can grow.”

He put the mission more plainly still. “Jesus said, ‘Feed my people,’” he said, “and these gardeners are doing exactly that.”