I just want to give everyone an update on two important activities we will be undertaking over the spring and summer months right here in Stromsburg to hopefully bring joy, companionship, physical activity, and fresh whole produce to our neighbors at Swede Haven and Midwest Covenant Home through gardening activities.

In just a couple of weeks, we will begin planting a community garden at Swede Haven in Stromsburg, which will be one large space open for all the residents there to share. After meeting with the Swede Haven community, together we’ve chosen the following fruits and vegetables for the garden:

• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Onions
• Bell Peppers
• Green Beans
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Strawberries
• Melons
• Zucchini
• Sweet Corn
• Radishes
• Salad Greens
• Winter Squash
• Rhubarb
• Asparagus
• Okra
• Beets.

After stepping off the garden area, it looks as if we’ll have around 1200 sq ft of garden space, and so I believe we’ll have plenty of room to grow most of the things listed above. We’ll also plant plenty of flowers and place at least a few benches around the garden to allow anyone who is interested to come sit and enjoy the garden activities. Additionally, we’re going to plan at least a few cookouts on the patio at Swede Haven throughout the garden season to enjoy each other’s company and celebrate the beautiful summer weather.

We’ve also agreed to provide regular volunteers to enhance the patio gardening activities at Midwest Covenant Home. We recently met with Michelle Roesener and Claire Quandt to discuss what types of activities to undertake and how we might transform the patio area into a beautiful, therapeutic space for the elders to enjoy. It looks as if we need to overhaul the raised beds on the patio, and do some cleanup work in the near future. We’ll be scheduling a day for that soon – hopefully when the weather warms a bit more! We are planning to provide volunteers to work with the elders twice per week: either Tuesday or Wednesday evenings, and also on Saturday mornings.

I am sending this message to a broader audience than most updates as we are always looking for additional volunteers to help make these efforts as successful as possible. These two activities will require lots of volunteers, supplies, hope, and faith to bring to life in a way that provides benefit to all involved. If you would be interested in helping out in any way, please let me know. If you have ideas that we could incorporate into these garden spaces there is still plenty of time to help plan what each will look like. Lastly, if you could just keep these efforts and the good people at Swede Haven and MCH in your prayers for a successful garden season, we would certainly appreciate that too!

Peace,
Jason

A Place at the Table now has its own Web site at www.placeattable.org. But then, you might already know that because you are here!
This is another step in the growth of our organization, as we have moved on from sharing space at www.WideSky.biz.
Please plan to check back to see the changes and improvements we make here to support our work in Lincoln and other communities.

Last Thursday we met with the residents and Executive Director of Swede Haven in Stromsburg to discuss the upcoming community garden and get their input on what to grow.  We were pleased that about 15 residents were there to provide input, and they were very excited by the idea!  We distributed a short “ballot” of sorts and asked them to check off all of the vegetables/fruit they would prefer.  Listed below are the ones they selected, in descending order of popularity:

• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Onions
• Bell Peppers
• Green Beans
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Strawberries
• Melons
• Zucchini
• Sweet Corn
• Radishes
• Salad Greens
• Green Peas
• Rhubarb
• Asparagus
• Pumpkins
• Winter Squash
• Okra
• Beets

After stepping off the garden area, it looks as if we’ll have around 1200 sq. ft. of garden space, and so I believe we’ll have plenty of room to grow most of the things listed above. Also, we will try to plan for at least a few benches around the garden to allow anyone who is interested to come sit and join enjoy the garden activities.  Several residents also expressed interest in working the garden as well!  Additionally, three of residents expressed interest in joining us to serve meals at Matt Talbot–and all agreed to donate the surplus produce from the garden to our meals at the Kitchen!

Finally, we’re going to try to plan at least a few cookouts on the patio at Swede Haven throughout the garden season to enjoy each other’s company and celebrate the beautiful summer weather!

I do hope you’ll join us!  More to come as we make further preparations!

I am pleased to let you know that our group will have a great opportunity to participate very closely in Matt Talbot’s move to their new location over the coming months. 

On Saturday, at a meeting of team captains at the Kitchen to update us on the plans for the move, I was asked to join the Steering Committee for Matt Talbot’s $1.4M “Witness to HOPE” capital campaign that will be launched very shortly to raise the needed funds to relocate the Kitchen from their current location to the Carnegie Library area on North 27^th St.    

As part of the Committee, I am excited to be able to give voice to the many volunteers and supporters of Matt Talbot that hail from outside the Lincoln metro area.  About 20% of MTKO’s volunteers travel, like we do, to serve at the Kitchen, and I believe we will have some great opportunities this spring and summer to facilitate events in our area to tell the story of Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach and how important their mission is to the homeless and working poor in Lincoln.   

In talking with Sarah Sr. at the last meal, she indicated that they are thinking about a music festival fundraiser this summer as one possibility.  It sounds as if the campaign will have a significant “grassroots” flavor – small gatherings of people where the staff or Board of MTKO can interact personally with folks interested in the Kitchen and how they might help with the move.  Please be thinking of some other creative ways we might gather people together in our area to tell them about this great organization, and our experiences there. 

I will be attending the 1^st Steering Committee meeting on March 3^rd in Lincoln, and will give everyone an update on how this will unfold in the coming months.  If you have any ideas you’d like me to share with the Committee, just drop me a line before then!

I’d like to share something with you that was given to me this evening by a patron of Matt Talbot Kitchen.  Before you open it, let me tell you a bit about my frame of mind when it was handed to me about 5:15pm.  

I think it’s fair to say that the Tuesdays we serve at MTKO are fairly stressful for me.  I am a worrier by nature, and by the time “serving day” rolls around on the calendar, I’ve usually wound myself up pretty tightly trying to make sure that nothing has been missed and everything will go as planned.  Today, I had the added stress of having endured a couple of very trying days at work, and the knowledge that I am struggling to keep up with my classwork in pursuit of my master’s degree in engineering. 

After the rush to get everything loaded…ham , potatoes, cheese, sour cream, broccoli, peas, bananas, etc…drive to York to get Kellie, buy gas, get to Lincoln, unload at the Kitchen, scurry to get the peas and broccoli on to boil, unpack the coolers, get the potatoes back in the oven to reheat…no time to think about anything…  I became aware that one of the hearing-impaired guests we’ve served on a number of occasions was sitting at a nearby table, smiling, jotting something on a napkin, and watching us rush around like recently beheaded chickens.  You may remember him; he wears a plaid trilby-style hat…last month he was there with a number of his friends, and many of us were touched by the joyful and animated conversations they had with one another while eating.  Feeling very pressed for time, I nodded and smiled at him and went back to my furious unpacking of hot potatoes. 

Then he got up from the table, and handed me the napkin…

 …and it was just what I needed.

 I…….    I hope that someday I have the opportunity and dexterity to tell him how blessed I am to be able to do this month after month, even though I sometimes fail to take the time to enjoy it. 

Namasté, my friend in the plaid trilby hat.  May God bless you richly on your journey.

The same to you, my friends.

Just a quick note to let all of you know that we have been given the approval to start a community garden for the residents of the Swede Haven in Stromsburg this spring! 

I am meeting with Cindy Naber, the Executive Director, to discuss the physical location of the garden on Thursday of this week.  I hope to hold a meeting with the residents of Swede Haven in the near future to discuss what sorts of vegetables and flowers they would like to have grown in the garden.  It is exciting to begin this new mission and I look forward to building many new friendships along the way.  Having a garden at Swede Haven should provide us many opportunities to build community over the summer, as well as enjoy some terrific vegetables!

I have also spoken with the Activities Director at Midwest Covenant Home in Stromsburg about volunteering to work with the raised beds and container gardens to create a therapeutic horticultural environment for the residents there.  We will be having more conversations in the coming weeks to bring more clarity about how we can be of service to resident of MWCH.