Sowing The Seeds of Love

Every Saturday morning, now through September, Fields Farm of Johns Island brings their freshest picks to John Wesley United Methodist Church’s front lawn on Savannah Highway. From 9 a.m. to 12 noon, anyone can come check out the produce and purchase it in exchange for cash or food stamps, both the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At the conclusion of the sale, any remaining produce is donated to a local food-aid group or shelter of the congregation’s choosing.
This is a Seeds of Hope Farmers Market, and 2013 marks John Wesley’s fourth year hosting it. Seeds of Hope was the dream of Columbia native Donna Bryan almost 30 years ago. Bryan wanted to help struggling and rapidly disappearing small-scale farmers by connecting them directly with local consumers. According to the Seeds of Hope Project for Public Spaces blog page, most participating farmers (including Fields Farms) have been a part of the project from the beginning, it’s been a tremendous help to their bottom line.
But everyone involved benefits: people in the community, regardless of income, have weekly access to fresh, organic, locally-grown food picked at the peak of its nutritional value. In addition to the income, the farmer is building a direct, neighborly relationship with his/her consumer base and the church provides fellowship its community as a meeting place while addressing a crucial community need.
Hunger is a very real problem in our state — according to a 2012 report by Food Research and Action Center, an estimated one in five South Carolina families are currently struggling to put food on the table. If that weren’t enough, the nationwide obesity epidemic has revealed that access to fresh, organic, affordable food is a big problem. Since its inception, Seeds of Hope has been growing to meet community demands, working with 50 farmers from 15 different counties. Sometimes the market is such a success in a community, it is replaced by a larger effort. Bryan doesn’t see this as a bad thing, though. She sees this as a sign of the project’s success–Seeds of Hope farmer’s market spawned demand and a movement where none had existed before.
What produce is in-season right now? May-September crops include beans, cantaloupes, eggplant, okra, peppers, potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and tomatoes. By July, watermelons are part of the harvest. Coincidentally, in recent years, John Wesley has been unofficially nicknamed “the pumpkin church”. This is because each October its lawn is a vibrant sea of orange, dotted with hundreds of pumpkins for sale. Could there be a more perfect site for a farmer’s market?
John Wesley has been on Savannah Highway since 1946, its first service was held in January 1951. Erin Boudolf, John Wesley’s Marketing Coordinator, reminds the community that Seeds of Hope Farmer’s Market is not John Wesley’s only community outreach hunger project; throughout the year, church members host food drives and maintain a pantry of non-perishable food items that is available for needy families.
 
For more information, see www.jwumchurch.org, or the facebook page, facebook.com/pages/Seeds-of-Hope-Farmers-Market.