A grant from the Missouri Department of Agriculture will fund a community garden and farmer’s market at St. Joseph’s Bartlett Center starting next year. The non-profit was one of 19 organizations in the state to receive a Food-Insecure Cost Share Grant from the agency.
The center’s director LaTonya Williams came across the grant while searching for opportunities earlier this year. “It seemed extremely interesting,” she said, “so I applied to create a family garden and a farmer’s market.”
The project will be led by students in the school’s after-school program. According to Williams, they are already discussing what to grow, with plans to raise tomatoes and cucumbers in the hopes of preserving salsa and pickles.]
The garden will be a space where all are welcome, as an extension of the center’s current mission.
“If anybody ever asks about the Bartlett Center, I let them know that we are the heart of the community and of the neighborhood,” Williams said. “In this area of town everybody knows our doors are always open. Everybody needs a little bit of attention, and we give [the area’s residents] that.”
The Bartlett Center has kept a garden on its campus in mid-city St. Joseph in the past, but the grant, which is for $25,000, will revive and expand that program. The center plans to raise an additional $9,000 to cover the project’s cost in its entirety.
According to Williams, the project will bring together education, agriculture, community uplift, and self-sufficiency.
“If you’re able to learn how to garden, you can use that all your life. And honestly, I need to learn myself. It’s going to be a learning experience for all of us, I can tell you that!” she said.