Farmington Hills, Farmington

Church sows seeds to fight hunger

By David Wallace
C & G Staff Writer

FARMINGTON HILLS — The congregation at Hope Lutheran Church recently started a project to feed hungry people and the congregation’s own spiritual hunger.

“Growing Hope” is the name the church gave to its new community garden, which grows on empty land behind the church, on 12 Mile, near Haggerty. In the past few months, tiny sprouts turned into a vibrant garden ready for harvest.

“Our service team came up with the idea that we wanted to focus on one issue, a social issue — this is going back to last fall — and we chose hunger. And so throughout the year, we had all manner of different efforts regarding hunger. We had a road rally; we’ve had lots of sermons on it; we’ve had Bible studies on it (and) service Saturdays to Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries,” said Mike Thomas, a congregant who took a leadership role in the garden.

“Out of that discussion last fall came the idea of doing a garden,” said Thomas.

The garden’s yields include lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, potatoes, radishes and cilantro.

“If you can think of it, it’s probably in there,” said Thomas.

Already the church has made some donations to Hospitality House in Commerce Township, and it plans to deliver food to the Servant Church of St. Alexander in Farmington Hills. Besides proximity, Hope Lutheran chose those food pantries because they can accept and distribute the fresh food.

“We’ve already harvested, three times, the lettuce and probably donated close to 20 pounds of lettuce,” said Thomas.

The church hopes to spread the idea to grow and donate food.

“It’s raising awareness of the issue as much as anything. Probably for the amount of time and effort and so forth, we could have all gone over to Kroger and bought a bunch of vegetables and taken them out there and provided as much food, but I think the process is really important in terms of people coming outside of themselves and understanding how difficult it is just to get to this point, and then to take that food in,” said Thomas.

Gwen Adomaitis applied her gardening knowledge to the project.

“Why I joined the committee was because I really want to help foster a sense of community service and of social justice with my kids; and at 8, 5 and I have a 2-year-old, too, that’s just not old enough to do things like with the soup kitchens or other things like that, but this is a real meaningful way that they themselves can help out people who are in need,” said Adomaitis.

“I helped wheel the wheelbarrow back to get more dirt, and I helped dig it out. I also helped with some of the planting and watering,” said Drew Adomaitis, 8.

“This has been sort of a standalone project, and there’s been literally dozens and dozens of people who have volunteered some amount of time, effort, labor, donations, money, plants,” said Thomas.

Church members learned a lot about hunger in past months. The road rally they held involved buying groceries to donate.

“There were a lot of kids that participated, and I think they learned how expensive food from the shelves is, and also how narrow, really, is the margin between people,” said the Rev. Brad Gee, the church’s pastor. “Sometimes you think of people who are hungry as kind of other people, and realizing that maybe now more than ever, at least in our lifetimes, we’re aware of how we’re all in it together.”

“It was a real reminder of the need that’s local. We think of Farmington Hills as being a fairly affluent community, which it is, but even within our city boundaries, there’s great need, let alone heading towards Detroit or anywhere else,” said Thomas.

The youths whom the church confirmed this year donated plants for two large boxes that make up a third of the garden.

“It gave them a chance to understand as they’re reaching their next level of maturity within the church and in their faith life to say, ‘Hey, there is a need constantly for us to reach out of ourselves and to help those in need and find solutions,’” said Thomas.

“When we connect with God’s vision for the world, it changes us. It changes our priorities and kind of helps us to see things differently. And hunger, it’s a common denominator for all human beings,” said Gee.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer David Wallace at dwallace@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1053.