Gardening Workshop is Food and Faith Project’s Most Successful Event Yet Sixty-five people gathered on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon at Solid Rock Apostolic Faith Church in West Baltimore for the workshop “Growing Food, Growing Faith: Creating a Vegetable Garden with Your Faith Community.” They represented a wide variety of religious backgrounds, including Catholic, Episcopalian, Quaker, Lutheran, Methodist, Muslim, Presbyterian, Unitarian and others. The interfaith workshop, organized by CLF’s Food and Faith Project, allowed participants to share their own unique perspectives and to meet others also interested in improving the food system through the promotion of environmental stewardship and by helping to get healthier foods to those in need. The workshop included a presentation of Solid Rock’s new garden by youths in the after-school AMSS. (Advancing Minds Striving for Success) program. AMSS works to build academic competence and provide overall personal enrichment to youth and families. The workshop also included a tour of Jonah House, a small Catholic community in West Baltimore dedicated to simply and sustainably living and growing and sharing a wide variety of foods. The community collects rainwater for the garden and creates compost to keep the soil healthy. Two llamas, two donkeys and two goats act as resident “lawnmowers,” keeping the St. Peter's Cemetery in West Baltimore free of weeds and vines—without using any fossil fuels. One-third of the food Jonah House grows is used by residents; one-third is preserved for winter; and one-third is shared with community members in need. After the tour, Chrissa Carlson from the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Office gave a presentation on the practical considerations of creating a garden. For more information about how Food and Faith can help you to create a garden with your own faith community or parochial school, contact Angela Smith at (410) 502-5069 or angsmith@jhsph.edu. | 
