July 22ndCommunity Garden Gives Life in Time of Pandemic
Gardening in Mississauga
“With Covid-19, it is life-giving to know that you have a community to be a part of and discuss our experiences of going through this pandemic,” says Stephen Reist, pastor at Mississauga Mennonite Fellowship (MMF).
Growing from MMF’s experience with ReLearning Community, they began to dream of what a missional community might be in their context. Stephen and Carol Reist have a large garden on their property. “It’s a lot of work to manage and we were eager for the vegetable garden to do more,” says Stephen.
Erik and Natasha, Neil and Chris, Chrissy, Carol, Stephen and Daniel began to plan a community garden. Some were new to gardening, some had gardened their whole lives and some enjoyed to research the latest scientific approaches to gardening. Early in March, they went to a “Seedy Saturday” together. This was a place for a local group of people to exchange seeds that they have collected, as well as share ideas on different aspects of gardening. Then Covid-19 hit and seemed to derail their plans.
“We had no idea when we started how valuable it would be to have people you can get together with in person! That has been one of the most valuable parts of this whole endeavor.”
However, in April they had some Zoom meetings to talk about what they wanted to plant. They shared a garden planning app so they could share their plans visually with each other. When May arrived and people were able to meet together in small numbers, they were able to begin planting in a physically distanced manner.
“We get together almost every Thursday night to do some weeding, planting, or whatever needs to be done,” says Stephen. “We had no idea when we started how valuable it would be to have people you can get together with in person! That has been one of the most valuable parts of this whole endeavor.”
As harvest looms, they hope to have a feast to enjoy the produce together. In this first year, they have taken “baby steps” as they have learned how to work together, what plans work and what plans did not work, and how a community garden might grow in future years.
“That is a picture of my faith journey,” says Stephen, “I constantly need to learn to do baby steps in my life. I want to have it all planned out ahead of time and jump right in and know how it is all going to be. Yet in my life the things that have been most fruitful have been the surprises or curiosities that I have experienced grown from the baby steps that I have taken in my life.”
Mississauga Mennonite Fellowship has been a part of MCEC’s ReLearning Community initiative. They continue to seek to follow the example of Jesus Christ and find ways to be a sharing and caring community in the Greater Toronto Area.
People across MCEC continue to find creative and innovate ways to stay connected during this time of pandemic - covid stories of hope.