Real Stories from Real Congregations Best Practices of Sustainable Agriculture/Farming by Churches   Farmer’s Markets A new coupon program called “That’s My Farmer” was started this year in Benton County, OR. St. Mary Catholic Parish, First Congregational United Church of Christ, First United Methodist, Monroe United Methodist and the Corvallis Mennonite Fellowship sell coupons after services and in church offices which are redeemable at local farmers’ markets. In their first weekend, the congregations sold more than $1,500 worth of coupons. Ten percent of all proceeds are used to provide coupons to low-income families. The program is based on the desire to raise awareness within faith communities of the need to support local farmers which is good for the local economy, and to promote access to fresh, nutritious food for lower-income folks. Rose City Park Presbyterian Church of Portland, OR hosts the Hollywood Farmers' Market every Saturday morning. The market previous operated in the parking lot of a bank, but when the bank extended operating hours to include Saturdays this valuable community resource was in need of a new home. If you have interest in using your church space for a market, please contact info@nccecojustice.org! Community Supported Agriculture Community United Church of Christ in Champaign, Ill supports a local C.S.A. by purchasing three shares and donating the food each week to a local food pantry. The farm’s owners, Jim and Diann Moore, were in danger of losing the farm when they had the opportunity to join the Prairieland C.S.A. in 2003. So, for the church and the Moore family, it is a win-win partnership with each supporting the other and both helping to feed the hungry.Click here to read an article about how Community UCC became involved in CSA. Community Gardens Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, NC was started in 2005, though the initial “seeds” were sown in 2003 with a prayer vigil that addressed race relations. Realizing that some of the area’s racial tensions stemmed from economic injustices, Grace Hackney, pastor of Cedar Grove United Methodist Church initiated some conversations to engage the community around issues of faith, food, and farming. Out of these discussions grew the idea for an experimental community garden on the grounds of Cedar Grove UMC. The criteria for membership to the garden include an agreement to work for two hours each week and an annual fee of $5; in return, members receive a share of the weekly harvest. In addition to bringing people of different races together for the purpose of producing and sharing organically grown food, the garden serves as a host site for teenagers needing to fulfill hours of community service, and has plans to add a prison ministry component. Anathoth Community Garden is more that an experiment in church-supported organic agriculture; it is an invitation to reconciliation. Click here to read an article that originially appeared in Disciples Today about three different congregations and their approaches to community gardens. Co-ops Whole Farm Cooperative, Inc. of Long Prairie, MN is an organization owned by family farmers, whose objective is to sell sustainably produced foods to its community members. It was started, in part, out of a desire to create a link between farmers and customers whereby the community could invest in its own health and welfare. From its beginning, the group worked with the Catholic Archdiocese in St. Paul to get area churches involved resulting in a successful C.S.A. (Congregationally Supported Agriculture) initiative which is based on the idea that food and spirituality are inextricably linked. For more information, check out www.wholefarmcoop.com. Fair Trade First United Methodist Church in Tacoma, WA operates a store called “Ends of the Earth” which sells only fair trade items. The store, which is located on the first floor of the church and is sponsored by the church’s Micah Project, was started in 2005 following a two year commitment by the church to serve only fair trade coffee and to sell fair trade coffee and tea to its members as a fund-raiser. The lay member who had initiated this commitment and the executive director of the Micah Project opened the store with $1000 in seed money from the denomination’s Pacific Northwest Annual Conference and $5000 of their own credit. Their motivation stemmed from the desire to raise awareness about the impact our choices as consumers have on those who produce the products. Any profits from the store are used to support the church’s peace and justice ministries.“