Community Care Ministry’s aim is to grow gardens that will help provide local food pantries with food for those in need.

Originally formed two years ago by Nelson Ray Baker of Springville, part of its mission is to create a sense of community while teaching the benefits of healthful foods.

Now overseen by Lisa Metcalfe, this month the program has been preparing the soil at locations across St. Clair County to begin this year’s crop.

Metcalfe said that while community gardens are usually seen in bigger cities, St. Clair is ripe for having them and people have already called and asked how they can help.

There are two gardens on County Road 22, one on Highway 144 in Ragland and another in Odenville.

Senior citizens groups tend to the ones in Ragland and Odenville, while an assortment of volunteers tend to the others.

Though there are already spots picked out, there is still time to donate land to be used for the gardens, which will feed those in the county without the means to get fresh vegetables.

“We’re really excited about it because we wanted tot do something and we didn’t have a lot of money or financial resources,” Metcalfe said of the nonprofit organization, which maintains 501c3 status.

The program has a coordinator to keep people motivated while taking part in laboring in the gardens. “If you never tell people who donate money or time ‘Thank you,’ then you lose them,” Metcalfe said.

The people involved network to make sure gardens are kept up and taken care of, since problems do arise when participating in such an endeavor.

“The biggest thing we’ve found is that vandalism happens and you’ll come in after a lot of hard work and your plants will be gone,” she explained.

Tomatoes are one of the main vegetables planted and the group is not planning on planting corn, since disease can take away hundreds of hours of hard work in a short period of time.

To volunteer at one of the gardens or to offer up land to be used, call 205-884-1002 or 205-223-1704 or email communitycareministry@gmail.com