Friends of Urban Agriculture was very honored to present the 2021 Golden Radish Award to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church’s Garden of Hope at our December annual meeting. The Garden of Hope is a Plot Against Hunger garden that was originally started by a St Andrew’s parishioner 13 years ago who was the chief of staff at USDA after he started the agency’s Plot garden on the Mall. It’s a large garden for Arlington, and every year, talented volunteers cultivate and donate at least a thousand pounds of produce, sometimes more than 2,000 pounds. The garden expanded a few years ago to include an orchard of fruit trees. In 2021, the garden and orchard, and its stalwart volunteers grew more 3,694 pounds of fruits and vegetables, all for area food pantries. That equates to a monetary value of $6,280!
Today, their corps of volunteers extends beyond parishioners to include several people from the community. The Garden of Hope has partnerships with Marymount University’s Food for Thought student group, several other churches, and Arlington Junior League. In addition, they are thankful for the advice and assistance the garden has received over the years from Puwen Lee, Becky Halbe, and Kirsten Conrad.
The Garden of Hope looks forward to many more years of growing vegetable, teaching others to grow vegetables, and cultivating community through gardening.
EN 
ES