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Growing MLK’s Community
Elizabeth Waibel
Cindy Ayres, left, and Matthew Weiss prepare the soil to plant a raised garden bed at the Jackson Inner-city Garden.
by Elizabeth Waibel
Jan. 16, 2012
In an empty lot next to a BP gas station on Northside Drive, Erika Roberts pointed to a few tall twigs poking out of the muddy ground, almost indistinguishable from surrounding grass. They don't look much like an orchard, but soon they will be blackberry bushes, blueberry bushes and muscadine vines.
"My husband makes a great muscadine jelly," she said.
Roberts is the program director and administrator of the Jackson Inner-City Gardeners, a group of people who cultivate naturally grown produce on a small lot in Jackson.
"Our mission is to create a sustainable food system in Jackson," Roberts said. In cooperation with the Jackson Medical Mall, the gardeners sell the produce they grow at affordable prices, donate it or eat it themselves.
Each Saturday, Roberts and her husband, "Farmer Tre'," work the garden with about 20 other volunteers, many of them young people who are learning to garden as part of the Jackson Inner-city Gardeners' mentoring program.
This morning, however, people from many different groups were at the garden to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by helping out in the community garden. While students from Belhaven University clear weeds away from the fences close to the road, Cub Scouts and high school students from Jackson and Clinton turn dirt to prepare it for planting.
"We are honoring the legacy and vision of Martin Luther King Jr. through service, building community and, most of all, building a healthier Jackson and a healthier community," Roberts said.
Down the hill from the orchard, Tre Roberts brought dirt to fill in raised beds where garlic, onions and other produce will grow. At one corner of the garden, Cindy Ayres, from Foot Prints Farm, helps Matthew Weiss, a Cub Scout from Pack 88 in Clinton, turn the soil in one of the beds and prepare it for planting. Ayres said she couldn't think of a better way to spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
"The gardening is important, but it's also the fellowship and bringing people together from all over the city," she said.
posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/16/12 at 01:03 PM. [printer version] Share |
COMMENTS
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May 24, 2012 | 09:34 PMBryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: @notmuch, here are some facts about voter fraud, straight from the Brennan Center's website: Fraud by individual voters is both irrational and extremely rare. Most citizens who ...
May 24, 2012 | 07:14 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: Oh, I have hundreds of those right-wing sites, and I couldn't say which ones are more "partisan"--they all include those pesky facts. Yes, when dead voters and multiple voters under ...
May 24, 2012 | 07:11 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
justjess: @ golden eagle. Thanks for the spell check. I didn't just spell assassination wrong ONE time, I did it over and over. LOL! You are right on the mark; I was trying to use the word ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:46 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: I don't think you could've found a more partisan right-wing site than the Daily Caller. The fact of the matter is that the right is using this issue not as a means of improving ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:10 PM
[Dish] Cobby Williams, Young Gun
trusip: WOW! was this a real interview or a joke?
May 24, 2012 | 05:00 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: I don't think you could have found a more liberal example of a "non-partisan" site, but even so, their evidence seems to consist of 250 carefully chosen instances in one area of ...
May 24, 2012 | 04:48 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: Rather than using ideological websites to support your argument, I'll use the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice. Really good site.
May 24, 2012 | 04:30 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
notmuch: I might be missing something here, but I am a little confused by Golden Eagle's points: "the fact is that voter fraud is extremely rare"--so it is of no consequence that some ...
May 24, 2012 | 11:26 AM
Nick Hanauer's 'Controversial' TED Talk -- Tax the Rich?
RobbieR: TED is an elite academic conference.
May 24, 2012 | 10:18 AM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
DonnaLadd: No, Darryl, no one blocked you. Stop being paranoid. We just typically open comments in moderation during non-office hours. To me, a bozo isn't someone who disagrees with me. It's ...
May 24, 2012 | 06:18 AM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
Darryl: That's funny that you blocked my last comment...
May 24, 2012 | 05:31 AM
Nick Hanauer's 'Controversial' TED Talk -- Tax the Rich?
Renaldo Bryant: So true. This is why critical and analytical thinking are so important to citizens in a democracy. The rich have the power to shape perception ...
May 23, 2012 | 05:24 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
Darryl: justjess, you stated "Racism and discriminatory practices continue." What objective data do you have to support this? Calling someone unqualified is a subjective interpretation of ...
May 23, 2012 | 01:37 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: Wow, my English was bad on the previous post. You know how it is on these iPhones.
May 23, 2012 | 12:30 PM
Bryant Signs Voter ID Bill
golden eagle: @Jess, I think the word you're looking for is "assassination". @Darryl, do we really know that the majority of MS'ians wanted this, when you consider that this was a ...
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