$1,000 Green Grant Award for Concerned Citizens of Charles City County

Concerned Citizens of Charles City County informs and educates residents about issues in the county and strives to become a source of empowerment for the community.

C5 desires to give back to the community and restore historic Barnetts Elementary School into a training and community center with a community garden. Charles City is a food desert, without a grocery store or a food pantry. The community garden will provide fresh, free local produce to residents in need.  C5 members are creating a volunteer network to water, plant, and harvest the vegetable crops and flowers.  Local churches have expressed interest in addition to many neighbors along Barnetts Road.

The garden will use a zero-carbon process that uses gardening paper to address weeding, and use raised rain barrels that capture rain to naturally water the garden using drip line irrigation system. Composting bins are currently onsite to create valuable fertilizer. The process will allow people to harvest more without the intense amount of labor.

Food harvested from the garden will also be used in cooking demonstrations by a local chef. Many people within any community do not understand the cycle of food production and how it impacts their community.

Grant funds will be used to purchase garden tools, hosing, posters to inform the community about volunteering opportunities and food availability, and a storage shed to house tools and materials for the garden in the initial half-acre garden.

C5 estimates that 10 local volunteers will participate, as well as students from Virginia State University who have selected the community garden to satisfy the minimum number of volunteer hours as a directive of their program.