St. Francis Vegetable Garden – October 28

Kimber Ratcliff and Gkimber radcliffermaine Jackson – October 28, 2014

Kimber Ratcliff was the guest speaker on Tuesday, October 28, 2014. She represented the St. Francis Vegetable Garden. She is originally from Texas but has been living in Thibodaux with her family. She is a master gardener who has worked with the LSU-Ag center. Along with Chris Ledet, she helped found the St. Francis Vegetable Garden. The garden aims to provide fresh vegetables to local people in need and also to provide a place for children to learn the importance of growing and consuming fresh food.
The garden was made possible by the willing support of many people. Kimber said the Mayor was very responsive to the idea, and the City of Thibodaux provided the property and the water for the garden. Numerous families, non-profit groups, high school and college organization, and corporations donated financial support and hard work to help with planting, maintenance, and harvesting.
Last season the garden produced 2600 pounds of fresh food that was donated to the local Good Samaritan Food Bank. The volunteers grew many things including squash, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, corn, watermelon, and other vegetables. The garden is now in it’s second growing season and the support for the garden continues to grow. More information on the garden can be found on their Facebook page.
Germaine Jackson is a Thibodaux native who works as the Director for Social Services for Catholic Charities in the Houma/Thibodaux area. She spoke about the important mission of the Good Samaritan Food Bank. She expressed excitement for the fresh produce that the garden was now producing and reported that all the produce was given to families in the area. She also noted that Lafourche is the only parish in the state with a community garden whose produce goes directly to a food bank.

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