St. Michael’s Neighborhood Garden and Labyrinth Committee of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Lansing received the Mayor’s Neighborhood Grant from the City of Lansing’s Department of Neighborhoods, Arts and Citizen Engagement. This grant is awarded by The Hon. Andy Schor, mayor of Lansing and the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Board.
The St. Michael’s Neighborhood Garden and Labyrinth Committee helps to maintain the parish’s community garden and labyrinth; they are key members of the parish who help organize the garden plots, work with community members who garden, provide support and help to members of the parish and the overall community who plant in the garden.
The garden currently is one acre with room to expand, and is open to the public.
The group was awarded the Mayor’s Neighborhood Grant after an application process where they expressed their intent to use the garden to grow fresh food for the community and neighborhood. With the grant money, the group will be able to purchase equipment to maintain the garden, tools for the community to use, stakes and fencing. It will provide seedlings and plantings, and more space for community members to garden for their own families.
These garden plots are offered for free to the Lansing community. Many people already have garden plots, including several families from Nepal and Kenya, and others from refugee communities that live in apartments and do not have land to grow their own food.
The other produce that is grown is donated to the local distribution center of the Greater Lansing Food Bank.
And! If that doesn’t sound amazing enough, St. Michael’s has two beehives which in addition to producing honey, also helps to safely maintain a bee population in the community.