Community Garden Expands
PACA Expands its Community Gardens into Shenandoah, Invites Community Involvement
PACA, Page Alliance for Community Action, is a local organization known for its mission to keep Page County healthy and drug free. PACA has offered many programs and resources to our community through events including the annual polar plunge at Lake Arrowhead, as well as its involvement in providing community service opportunities to local youth. In recent years, PACA has increased its efforts by creating local community gardens in hopes to build resilience within the Page County community, maintaining a goal to have a garden accessible in each area of the county. “These gardens offer access to free, fresh produce, as well as a chance to build skills for anyone interested in sustaining these practices on their own,” says Megan Gordon, Program Director for PACA. With the first garden starting by the rural health clinic in Stanley and the second located on the Page Memorial Hospital campus in Luray, PACA, the Master Gardeners, Valley Health, the Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Shenandoah town employees are now working to build a garden by the Valley Health Page Memorial Hospital Family Medicine clinic located at 505 Williams Ave in Shenandoah.
On March 26, from 9AM-2PM, they will be having their first work day at the Shenandoah gardens and are inviting public support. The tasks of the day will include laying down plastic and/or cardboard in the beds, spreading mulch, getting dirt in the beds, and other tasks involved in preparing for planting. There will be another chance to join these efforts on April 9th, also from 9AM-2PM, located mostly in Shenandoah with potential to do some planting of early crops in the Stanley gardens as well. “In addition to providing produce, the gardens offer great opportunities for people to come out and get involved,” says Megan. These opportunities will allow community members to work alongside master gardeners, Virginia Cooperative extension employees, JMU students supporting the project, and other community members interested in helping out and growing their gardening knowledge and experience. The impact of these gardens extend across our community as the agricultural students from Page County High School are currently utilizing their greenhouse to grow plant starts for the gardens as well.
The beauty of these gardens is that they do not just offer delicious vegetables and a chance to build a stronger community. Megan shared that there are also hopes to increase education opportunities through classes on soil health, plant identification, harvesting, canning/preservation and more, through “Teach Me Tuesdays” offered at the gardens. In addition ,“Free Market Fridays” will also be held at the all three locations, allowing locals to pick up produce and connect to those tending to the gardens. “There’s a lot of great things coming out of these community gardens, and we encourage the community to stay on the lookout for how to join in,” Megan expressed. If you are interested in learning more or getting involved with the gardens, please contact PACA at (540)742-9386 or email at pageallianceforcommunityaction@gmail.com.
