Above: God’s Garden at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church has a variety of vegetables growing in 21 raised beds. Vegetables are used in the church’s Friday night free dinners. Photo Credit | Connie McKinney
Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Endicott grows fresh vegetables for weekly dinners
By Connie McKinney
Contributing Writer
Nick Pianella spent a recent summer evening picking peppers from a garden located outside of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Endicott.
A cart full of vegetables grown at God’s Garden at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Endicott arranged by Nick Pianella. Photo Credit | Nick Pianella
Then, he brought the peppers inside the church to its kitchen, where volunteers served the peppers to people who attend the church’s weekly soup kitchen.
“It’s garden to table,” said Pianella, one of six volunteer gardeners at the church, including his wife, Carolyn.
Called God’s Garden, the church’s garden helps feed the hungry who attend the church’s 46-week-a-year soup kitchen on Friday nights. Every pepper, tomato, and bean grown is either served or given away to those who attend the soup kitchen. Many parishioners also bring in vegetables they grow in their personal gardens to supplement those grown in God’s Garden, said Kelley Hamlin, one of the coordinators of the soup kitchen.
“This is a good way for them to get fresh vegetables once a week,” Hamlin said. “Otherwise, they might not have them.”
Growing a garden at the church is a ministry that has been in place for 18 years. The soup kitchen has been serving people in need for more than 20 years, Hamlin said.
On a recent visit to the garden, tomato plants loaded with tomatoes stood tall. Bright yellow blossoms that will soon turn into yellow squash covered one row of raised garden beds. Green beans dangle from another row of garden beds and are almost ready to pick.
Sometimes, the vegetables start to ripen all at the same time. Last year Hamlin and other volunteers came to the kitchen to cook the weekly meal and found a table loaded with green beans.
“They all come out at once. It was green bean week,” she said. “We just cooked them up and used them.”
All vegetables will either be tossed into salads or cooked for the church’s soup kitchen by a small army of volunteers. Nine teams of eight to 12 volunteers take turns cooking for the soup kitchen.
About 50 people attend the dinners each week, said Bonnie Hanna, who volunteers in both the garden and soup kitchen ministries.
Nick Pianella picks a pepper from God’s Garden at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Endicott. The pepper and other vegetables grown in the garden will be served at the church’s Friday night free dinners. Photo Credit | Connie McKinney
“We don’t turn anybody away,” she said. “Nobody has to go away hungry.”
Every volunteer tries to greet every diner with a smile and friendly greeting, Hanna said. “There’s a lot of community here. Everybody’s welcome.” Some people are regulars at the dinner, she added. “It’s like a family. They see each other every week.”
Growing vegetables, cooking them, and serving them to people in need is a way for volunteers to put their Catholic faith in action. “It’s not just Mass on Sundays,” she said. “It’s giving back.”
Hamlin said she agreed.
“It’s a really good way for the church to reach out to the community and introduce them in many ways to the idea of Jesus, to let them know they’re loved, to let them know they’re valued, and to let them know they’re important,” Hamlin said.
Carolyn Pianella said Our Lady of Good Counsel has a lot of other ministries that help people, including an annual rummage sale.
“We have a sense of obligation to serve people,” she said. “We truly do care about the community and have a lot of things here to share.”
Both ministries take a lot of work, but there’s also a lot of laughter, smiles, and camaraderie along the way, Hanna said.
“I’ve made new friends by gardening and working in the soup kitchen,” she said. “We’re making friends and we’re letting people see [that] being involved is fun.”
What’s happening?
Our Lady of Good Counsel holds a dinner, free of charge, at 5:30 p.m. Fridays at the church located at 701 West Main St., Endicott. Dinners are held 46 of 52 weeks a year.
