Community Garden and Meditation Area Ministry

Mission of the Ministry

To continue our parish's commitment to addressing social justice and poverty issues in our community. "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me." (Matthew 25: 35)

Goal of the Ministry

To outreach to those less fortunate by supplementing their meals with fruits and vegetables and enriching their lives and th elives of our parishioners who interact with them.

Objective of the Ministry for 2025

To actively involve a total of 300 low-income community residents and 20 parish volunteers in the growing of vegetables and fruit trees to provide them with supplemental nutritional food to improve their physical and emotional wellbeing.

Contact Information

Jim Grant
Dan Griffin

Updates

Dear Newman parishioners –

Our Community Garden and Meditation Area Ministry is now over halfway completed. We are still in need of financial support from our parishioners to complete the project. Below is a summary of our journey over the last 18 months.

 

MISSION OF OUR MINISTRY

“For I was hungry and gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25: 35-36).

GOAL OF OUR MINISTRY

Outreach to those less fortunate by supplementing their meals with fruits and vegetables and enriching their lives and the lives of our parishioners who interact with them.

OBJECTIVES OF OUR MINISTRY
  • 70 raised, irrigated planting beds 20 feet long by 4 feet wide by 1 foot high for 55 low-income community families and 15 families from our parish.
  • MEDITATION AND PRAY AREA in center of garden for parishioners to contemplate about their relationship with Christ.
  • College students mentor families and maintain the garden.
  • Families will rotate after 2-3 years to maximize our ministry outreach.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE
  • Decorative cedar wood fence with metal gate.
  • Concrete entrance to garden.
  • Drip irrigation system for each of the 70 raised beds.
  • Drip irrigation system outside the fencing for trees and bushes.
  • Two storage shipping containers and concrete footing for compost area.
ITEMS NEEDING TO BE COMPLETED
  • Build 70 raised beds 20 feet long by 4 feet wide by 1 foot high.
  • Dirt for the 72 raised beds.
  • Decomposed granite or bark for walkways between the raised bed

Dear Newman parishioners –
Our Community Garden and Meditation Area Ministry is now over three quarters completed.

MISSION OF OUR MINISTRY

“For I was hungry and gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger, and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25: 35-36).

GOAL OF OUR MINISTRY

Outreach to those less fortunate by supplementing their meals with fruits and vegetables and
enriching their lives and the lives of our parishioners who interact with them.

VOLUNTEERS

Our ministry has relied on volunteers to complete many of the construction items. We are thankful
to Joe Korenak with Diamond Paving for volunteering his time and the tractor to load the raised
beds with dirt. We also would like to thank Francisco Pineda and his family for volunteering on
numerous days to help with the project and numerous other individuals who have volunteered
their time and financial support.

FUNDS NEEDED

We are so thankful to all the kind parishioners who have donated to our ministry.
We need approximately $4,000 to complete our community garden and start
selecting our gardeners in early March.

  1. We are starting to recruit our gardeners.  If you know of any needy or other parishioners who are interested in gardening, please have them contact Dr. Jesus Muro Larralde at [email protected].
  2. We have recently completed filling all the 74 raised beds.  This was a great accomplishment thanks to numerous volunteers over the last two months.
  3. We need to raise approximately $4,000 through the generosity of our parishioners for several projects for us to open the Community Garden and Meditation Area Ministry for our gardeners
  4. Come out and visit our magnificent parish Community Garden after Mass! Contact Dr. Dan Griffin ([email protected]) or Jim Grant ([email protected]) for any questions you may have about our Community Garden and what you can do to support it.

Community Garden 3.24.25 `and Sandwich Squad Update 3/24/25

1. Thank you for all the parishioners who have supported the Community Garden and Food Recovery Network through your prayers, donations or physical hard work over these past two years!

2. If you have any shovels, rakes or hoes that you would be able to donate to those who will be planting seeds in the garden in April, please contact Dan Griffin ([email protected]) or Jim Grant ([email protected])

3. If you have any used plastic bags (yes, used and plastic!) that you can spare, our Thursday Sandwich Squad would like them for when they deliver lunches on Thursday mornings. Please contact Dan Nickerson ([email protected]) or Frank Jimenez ([email protected])

The St. Paul Catholic Newman Center Community Garden Ministry is in its final stages
of completion after two years of planning, fundraising, and construction of the half acre
plot just west of the Cardinal Newman Center. As of today, we have allocated 68 of the
74 raised beds and many of the gardeners have already harvested numerous fruits and
vegetables with two of our gardeners just winning awards at the Fresno County Fair. Our Community Garden Program is a partnership of 5 non-profit organizations – St.
Paul Newman Center, Fresno State University, Fresno Metro Ministry Community
Garden Program, Master Gardeners of Fresno County, and Stone Soup Fresno.
As our two videos show the Community Garden Ministry is a beautiful addition to the
Newman Center by expanding our mission to bring the transformative power of Christ to
the needy of our community through WORD AND ACTION by the shared growing of
fruits and vegetables in community garden plots.
We now need to complete the compost area to provide soil enriching mulch for next
year’s growing season for the users of our raised beds. We are requesting you - our
parishioners and our gardeners to assist us in raising $3,000 to complete the four-foot
wall surrounding the compost area and to mulch the green waste in the compost area.
Please make sure to note on your check that your donation is for the Community
Garden to facilitate processing your donation to the Community Garden Ministry
account.

Community Garden

Img 1582
Community Garden1
Community Garden2

Newman Center Community Garden

Designed & Powered by On Fire Media |