In what may seem like an unusual pairing, Trinity Episcopal Church and "Love, Titos," the philanthropic branch of Tito’s Handmade Vodka, have teamed up with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance to establish a community garden in downtown Little Rock.
On a somewhat chilly Friday morning, nearly 200 volunteers came out to the site on south Broadway Street to complete the final phase of the installation, building on work from October of last year, and planting tomatoes, okra, blueberries, squash, and other healthy fruits and vegetables.
Sylvia Blain, CEO of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, says community gardens are vital to neighborhoods.
“They're a building block; for access to fresh healthy foods, but also to help build good neighbors and neighborhoods," said Blain. "Community gardens are a microcosm of what's going on in a community. So you get people in, they work side-by-side doing weeding, planting food, and harvesting that food, and it brings a lot of people together.”
Brandon Chapman, logistics manager of the program, says they’ve packed everything a gardener could need into the small plot of land.
"Up top we have 17 raised beds. We're going to have a picnic area. Each bed has its own irrigation that they can turn on and off through soaker hoses, so they are independently watered. In the lower portion, we have compost bins, we have picnic areas, we have a greenhouse, we have a storage shed, really everything you need for a full-functioning garden located on this quarter acre.”
Tito’s Vodka sponsored the garden as part of their “Block to Block” community farming project, providing volunteers and $75,000 of financial support. Catrina Bishop volunteers for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and says the mixture of hands-on work and policy planning draws her to the alliance.
"Not just talking about the problems, but finding ways and solutions to resolve them," said Bishop. "The Hunger Relief Alliance has done a lot for educating our legislature on what's needed by the people in the state of Arkansas, and have helped bring SNAP benefits to more people in the state of Arkansas.”
Trinity Episcopal Church owns the land on which the community garden has been built and will continue to maintain the space once volunteers have completed installation. It is open to anyone who lives in the community. More information is available online.
