Newspaper Page Text
Inside: What’s coining up in the community?— pages 3-4C
February 11,
2009
0 The Jackson Herald
finericfe
Jana Adams Mitcham,
Features Editor 706-367-8760
jana@mainstreetnews. com
Section C
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Hope Harvest Farm
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i laysville couple’s nonprofit
farm to benefit area food banks
By Jana A. Mitcham
T HERE’S A long-standing Southern tradition. If
you have extra in your garden, you share with
your neighbors.
Need a few ears of com? A basket of tomatoes?
Ben and Kristi Pahr, Maysville, are taking it a step fur
ther.
They are creating a garden just for sharing with neigh- ,3-.,
bors — area food banks, for starters — with the hopes of j
growing their nonprofit Hope Harvest Farm to eventually
reach more people in more locales with fresh produce and
education on nutritious eating.
The Pahrs are serious about the endeavor.
It’s not an “if you build it, they will come approach.”
They know the need is there; people are out of work, food
bank shelves are empty. It’s a matter of getting the seeds in
the ground, finding volunteer help, seeking financial and
even farm implement donations and making that harvest.
Kristi has cut back to working part-time as a veterinary
tech at the University of Georgia to devote her energy and
focus to Hope Harvest. She is making contacts with area
food banks, has set up a website (www.hopeharvestfarm.
org), has established nonprofit status at the state level and is
beginning the process for federal tax-exempt designation.
What used to be the couple’s sprawling front yard is now
overturned soil, mixed rich with compost and set off into a
number of garden plots.
As Kristi explained the basic premise of Hope Harvest,
Ben put Phyllis, a red International Harvester 300 with a
few miles on her — she’s a 1955 or 1956 model tractor —
through her paces, pulling a harrow through the soil.
“Up until September, this was all our front yard,” Kristi
said. “But Presley’s Lawn and Garden plowed it for us and
Cynthia Stephens of Red Hawk Farms donated the com
post. We’ve been getting the soil ready.”
In another week or two, the Pahrs will plant the early
crops, like carrots, onions and Idaho potatoes. Sweet
potatoes, tomatoes, com, squash, green beans, cucumbers,
eggplants and zucchini will come later.
Ben, who is a general manager at a fire sprinkler fabrica
tor company in the Duluth area, drives past acre after acre
of cultivable land every day on his way to work. He and his
boss discussed the fact that food bank shelves were standing
empty and how best to put farmland to use to help others.
“There’s all this land available and there really are so
many hungry people out there,” Ben said. “There’s land.
i-
a
GROWING A NONPROFIT FARM
Ben and Kristi Pahr are shown in front of one of the garden plots with which
they have replaced their front yard. The Pahrs plan to grow fresh produce
for area food banks.
Photos and page design by Jana Mitcham
...
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continued on page 2C
PUTTING PHYLLIS TO WORK
The Pahrs’ tractor, which they’ve christened
Phyllis, is a 1955-56 International Harvester
300. They’ve put her to work with a harrow.
K]®w earn
^7®oa GosOjp?
• Volunteer to help with the J -1
garden.
•Share your gardening
knowledge.
• Donate farming tools, gar- v ,
den supplies or money to
the nonprofit Hope Harvest
Farm.
• Find out more. Get the
JrT.
newsletter. Go online to the
website or Facebook.
• Contact Ben and Kristi
Pahr with your ideas at:
hopeharvest.farm@gmail.
com; 706-652-3134; or
www.hopeharvestfarm.org.
mSk' X-■ . V.■
Homemade love
A S A CHILD, I
always looked
forward to
Valentine’s Day. The
anticipation of the holi
day helped make the cold
weeks of January seem
to pass by a little quicker.
One particular Valentine’s
Day will always stand out
in my mind.
I was in third grade. The
week before the big event, each
student in my class was asked to
bring a shoebox to school. We
cut holes in the lids and covered
the boxes with brown parchment
paper. Using glue, glitter and col
orful construction paper, we deco
rated our individual boxes. They
were put away in a safe place until
February 14.
The night before the
party, my mother took
me and my sister to the
store to purchase our val
entines. We each chose
a box and headed home
to address the cards to
our classmates. After we
finished, we then made
beautiful heart-shaped
cookies and decorated
them with pink shiny sprinkles.
The morning of the big event
finally arrived. My teacher lined
the shoeboxes up along the wall
in the front of the classroom. One
by one, each student was allowed
to go to the front of the room and
drop valentine mail into each of
their classmate’s boxes.
When I arrived home that after
noon, I could hardly wait to open
my box and look at all of the pret
ty valentines that my friends had
given me. I dumped the box out on
my bed and began sorting through
valentines with clowns, animals,
and cartoon characters on them.
It was then that I came across one
that stood out from the rest.
It was a heart cut out of an old
white envelope. The sides were
sewn together with black thread.
It had writing in pencil that read,
“Thank you for being my friend.”
It was from a little girl in my class
who had very little as far as mate
rial things. It was obvious that she
came from a very poor family. At
times, she came to school dirty,
wearing the same clothes from the
sherri
Stephens
O
day before.
To this day, I don’t know what
happened to the flashy store-
bought valentines that my other
classmates had given me, nor the
beautiful box that I put so much
effort into making. But I do know
what happed to the valentine that
the little girl made for me — I still
have it.
She was neither able to give
store-bought valentines, nor bake
pretty cookies with sprinkles.
She did her best with the limited
resources that she had. And little
did she know, she gave the best
valentine of all, one that has con
tinued to touch my heart for many
years!
Sherri Stephens is a South
Jackson resident.
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