History

The Start of Nourishing Gardens

Nourishing Gardens Food Bank was founded by Carmen Hart and Clarence Hoffman. These two individuals with the help of Janet and Dyann Hoffman discussed possibilities that would help the community. One of the ideas was to open a food pantry to help those in need. The community use to have a food pantry but had closed many years ago. At that time these individuals weren't sure if this was going to happen, but the Lord knew the end from the beginning and had everything in place. A couple of weeks after the discussion a letter was received in the mail on how individuals could come and learn how to open a food pantry to help the less fortunate. Amazed by prayers being answered these individuals worked to get the food pantry up and running.

Building Preparations

They were able to acquire the use of a 55 year old church building that needed repair. Clarence, having a trade in carpentry worked on remodeling the kitchen with the help of Carmen. With remodeling came many surprises. The major surprise was that the floor had major water damage and the floor beams were crumbling. More work was needed than they first expected. Carmen and Clarence raised funds to repair the kitchen free of charge. These individuals had the desire and determination to get this program up and running.

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Kitchen before the remodelHole in the kitchen floorHole in the kitchen floorHole in the kitchen floorBroken floor JoiceBroken drainage pipeNew floor joices have been installedNew floor joices have been installedNew floor joices have been installedWater pipes wrapped and floor joice installedInstalling new subfloorCutting plywood for the new subfloorSubfloor almost completeInstalling half-walls in the kitchenNourishing Gardens kitchen is almost completeKitchen is almost completeNew kichen cabnetsNourishing Gardens storage areaStorage area

Volunteer Staff

Once the kitchen was remodeled everything seemed to fall in place from the Lord leading and guiding these individuals in every step. A year and six months later on April 6, 2003 Nourishing Gardens was open helping low-income households in the community and surrounding areas trying to end hunger. Currently Nourishing Gardens distributes thousands of pounds of food each year, to needy men, women, and children. Nourishing Gardens has a volunteer staff of college students, working professionals and individuals from the community who are willing to sacrifice time and money to help others.

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