Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Community Garden

Libby Janes, SPDR Director

Hunger is an ongoing crisis in our country that has been intensifying during the 43-day government shutdown and the temporary suspension of SNAP and WIC benefits. Churches around the Synod of the Sun have been courageously growing their ministries in creative ways to meet sharply increasing needs in their communities. Arkansas Presbytery’s Disaster Preparation and Response Team quickly responded by offering grants of up to $1,000 to support Arkansas Presbytery food ministries that are quickly adapting their programs to meet rising needs. Richard Freer, Response Team member from Jonesboro, Arkansas explains, “We want to get a message out to all the churches in our presbytery to say, ‘We’re with you, and we know this is happening.’ ” Applications for Arkansas congregation food ministries can be accessed by contacting the Arkansas Presbytery Disaster Response Team.

One remarkable story of a growing food ministry comes from Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church, a historic congregation founded in 1828 and located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The property is bordered by the historic Mount Comfort Cemetery, and includes a sanctuary, the old county schoolhouse converted into a fellowship hall, and their bustling Community Garden. Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church is a congregation of around 30 members, with a small but mighty food ministry.

I met virtually with a small team of the congregation’s dedicated gardeners. Their friendship and love for one another was undeniable, as I listened over the phone to their stories and playful exchange of jokes together. Join me in spirit as we visit this congregation from Arkansas Presbytery and learn more about their innovative food ministry.

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“The fall leaves were at peak three days ago,” volunteer gardener, Lewis Thompson, said. “It was late this year.” At Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Community Garden, another harvest season has just drawn to a close. The beds were covered with tarps and left to settle until the next planting season returns in March. Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Harvest Festival on October 25^th – complete with a chili cookoff and free chili dinner, live band, and hayride – invited the whole neighborhood to celebrate the end of the harvest season.

This year, Mount Comfort Community Garden donated a whopping 6,435 pounds of fresh produce to their community – in just seven months of hard work. Pastors Rev. Susan Gray and Rev. Libby Lizárraga are proud of their congregation’s commitment to this ministry. “I just cheer these guys on and they’re a great team!” Lizárraga says, smiling. “They throw birthday parties and celebrations, and they help take the food to various ministries around here. They are a wonderful group of people and I am honored to be among them.” 

The Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church Community Garden was started by church member and Master Gardener, Virginia Elmore. Elmore recounts, “I was bored after I got retired, and I had just started coming to church here. I thought, well, I like being outside in the sun and thought maybe we could have a church garden! And that was about 15 years ago. We do not typically have a lot of people in the garden – it’s a small garden. But we have a group of people here who have been working in it for several years, and it’s been really rewarding for me, keeping me out of trouble!”

Dan McConnell, “one of the movers and shakers of this garden” as his fellow gardener playfully introduced him, lists the many crops grown in the Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church Community Garden. “The largest part of our garden consists of 3 kinds of peppers, tomatoes, okra, onions, green beans, squash, and cucumbers. In our orchard we have pears and apples and peaches. We also have some bushes that produce our blackberries,” McConnell says.

The Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church Community Garden is tended by volunteer gardeners, aged 70 to 86, who each in one season average 560 hours of labor!  “On a typical day in the summertime, there will usually be between 4 to 5 people in the garden,” McConnell explains. “We arrive early and work together before it gets too hot. Lewis will be composting; Teri might be weeding. When it’s time to harvest, each person takes on a particular type of produce to share the responsibility.”

“We have a great time!” volunteering member Teri Johnson says. “When we get out there, we work and laugh and tell stories, and get to hear stories from Virginia, and we have sweat dripping down our face. Then we go away not smelling the best, but we just have fun.”

Welcoming All Gardeners

Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s garden is even helping to grow church membership.“What drew me to the church was that my friend and I like to garden,” Johnson says. “Seeing the garden intrigued us, and we started attending the church. Mainly what amazed me was the compost! I can’t imagine that being turned to dirt! The work that all of the team put in is just amazing. And knowing where the food goes – to people that get to taste fresh vegetables – is just amazing.” 

“I joined the church because they were so open and made me feel welcome. It’s not a place you could get lost! Then they welcomed me to help with the garden, and I’ve really enjoyed it,” reflects a volunteering member, Gwen Hoffman.

One member who regularly volunteers, Lewis Thompson, says “I’ve been with them about 6 years, and I came here after we moved up from Texas and my wife got me interested in it. She came out and worked one day and decided I would be better working it!” Thompson chuckles.

Digging New Ideas

Innovation has been a central feature of the Mount Comfort Community Garden, and the gardeners are always finding creative new ways to enhance their stewardship of the garden. The gardeners have prioritized water conservation by using efficient soaker hoses placed near the plant roots, and an experimental fence trialed by the University of Arkansas, which uses depth perception to confuse deer, helps protect the produce. 

Thompson has been a leader in developing the Community Garden’s composting system. “They did some composting before I came here, but we decided we couldn’t afford to buy commercial fertilizer, so we started gathering leaves and grass and everything we could, and I read several books and went on the internet and found out about how to compost. We’ve been working up our soil – we have real rocky soil and it’s shallow, but we’ve managed to make pretty good soil and have improved it.” Thompson uses organic matter donated by their local community – horse and chicken manure from local farms, woodchips given by the Ozarks Electric Company, grass clippings from the cemetery mowers, and anything the volunteers can gather – and composts it all to grow their garden. Thompson’s compost system perhaps best represents how central the work of this Community Garden is for its entire community. Small odds and ends that would otherwise be discarded come together to foster growth and healthy foods.

The Garden at the Heart of the Neighborhood

The ministry of Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Community Garden draws neighbors together as well. All produce from the garden is given away, free of charge, to a variety of local food ministries. Half a mile from Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church is an ecumenical food pantry, shared with Mount Comfort Church of Christ. Thompson says, “On Wednesday mornings we bring food and vegetables to the food pantry. On other days, we take it to Seven Hills, which is a place where homeless people can go for their needs.” Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Community Garden produce also supplies fresh produce for the Sunday Supper partnership with Trinity United Methodist Church.

In addition, food is freely given to families. “Sometimes we will bring produce over to the church before the service and the people from the congregation can take food that they wish to. Other times we’ve had families that receive food from our distribution centers who pull over their cars while we are working to thank us or ask if they can have vegetables – which of course we say yes!” McConnell says.

“I think it’s God’s service, and I enjoy garden work,” Hoffman says. “There are a lot of people who eat just processed foods, especially the elderly, who don’t have the income to buy fresh foods, so I like reaching out to people who are homebound or live in nursing homes. You see such a big smile on their face, especially when they receive our tomatoes!”

Over the 42-day federal government shutdown and while SNAP and WIC benefits were suspended, Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s gardeners noticed three times the amount of visitors at their food ministry events. “Last month we saw an increase – from single-digit numbers to up to 60 people at the max. It’s gradually increasing and we are seeing more people come.” McConnell says. “On the second Monday of every month we always put a big banner up by the church entrance, because we are on a fairly major road. We post the time of the Potluck and that everyone is welcome. Two days ago, 12-15 guests showed up to eat a nice Thanksgiving meal. We are happy that they came, but it also shows that there are more people who are hungry.”

Rooted in Stewardship: How a Garden Keeps Growing

The Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church Community Garden is sustained by congregation support, grant funding, and sponsorship by local organizations. “To relieve pressure from the church, we seek sponsorship from local organizations that are happy with what we do and believe in what we do,” McConnell explains. “We sell nothing, we make no money off it, and all of our workers are volunteers.” He explains the greatest expense is the plants, which cost about $5 each, and rises each year.

Community support for Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church’s Community Garden even stretches beyond their town. “We have other groups who ask to come to the garden, like students who need community service hours. Our church also sponsors the AmeriCorps team in the spring, and they work in our garden and live in our old schoolhouse for about six weeks. Presbyterian youth from Bentonville and around Northwest Arkansas came to help with the garden last spring. We also give opportunities for young people to learn how to garden.”

Plotting the Future

The gardeners eagerly look ahead to their next season of gardening, with new ideas in hand. “We are looking exploring a new direction, Horticultural Therapy, with different organizations in our area.” McConnell explains. “We are hoping we could help military veterans who have PTSD, by inviting them to work in the garden with us. Hopefully I will have that researched soon, so we can be prepared to invite people to help work in our garden in March, next season.”

Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church is also eagerly planning their bicentennial anniversary celebration, to be held in 2028.

Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church is seeking donations to help purchase plants for next season’s planting. If you or your congregation would like to support the church community garden, please send funds to:

Mount Comfort Presbyterian Church

3816 West Mount Comfort Road

Fayetteville, AR 72704

Designate Funds: Community Garden