John Carroll University’s Community Garden Helps Feed the Hungry

John Carroll University’s community garden started in 2008 as one 10-foot-square bed. Just four short years later, the garden has helped supply food to more than 5,000 families.

Peggy Finucane, director of the Center for Service and Social Action at JCU, came up with the idea.

“We had the space and the opportunity to provide produce,” Finucane said. “I saw it as a way of engaging our campus community and meeting the needs of hungry people in the [Cleveland] Heights area.”

Over the past four years, JCU has donated more than 600 pounds of produce to the Heights Emergency Food Center, which provides food for people in emergency situations.

“We get a lot of positive feedback from people on campus and the volunteers who step up to do this,” Finucane said. “Several of them have been with us since the start in 2008. They come back year after year to help because they enjoy it.” [Cleveland.com]