List of Concerns for Facilities & Grounds Committee

Here are the concerns that James sent to me this week. You'll notice that fragmentation is not listed as one of his concerns. I asked him if it was mentioned, and he said it wasn't mentioned.
I will compile your responses and hand them out on 1/17 in class, or email them to folks. Or if we need to, we can discuss them on 1/17.
Here's the list of concerns about our proposed garden (in black) and my responses (in blue). My questions to the Faith Matters Class are listed in red. Please comment on any ideas you have or any changes you’d like to make in any of this. Thanks!

Who will be receiving the produce? What ties do they have with KBC? What is their affiliation? Will those receiving the produce be asked to contribute maintenance or materials in exchange?The recipients: El Buen Pastor Church (a not for profit ministry) of the PCUSA in the Old Town area. Rosa Miranda is the pastor. Her congregation is largely immigrant and undocumented. No official ties with KBC. Mark Jensen knows the pastor and recommended her congregation as a community in need of fresh, healthy food. We have been in touch with them via email, and they are very excited to be the recipients of this produce. They even want to share it with those in the church neighborhood who are also experiencing hunger. We will invite them to help us, but know they may be hindered by lack of transportation and lack of materials due to their poverty status.
2. Logistics: How will the bermuda grass be eliminated prior to planting? How will the beds be maintained, and how will you ensure that the maintenance happens? How will you be watering (I know we'd talked about rain barrels...how will you be paying for them, what capacity will they be, who'll be doing the gutter modification for them, how will the water get to the garden, what will happen during times of drought?) You've talked about raised beds...how much will each cost, and how will they be constructed? Where will the plants/seeds come from? How about supports, etc.?
I was thinking we’d do what other churches have been doing with their raised beds—just putting some cardboard down over top of the grass and then building the raised bed on top of it. What do you guys think about this? Some churches have a Plot Manager for each bed (or one for all of the beds if they can’t get enough Plot Managers to volunteer). The Plot Manager makes a schedule of who is gardening their assigned plot for each week of the season and he/she also notifies the gardeners what needs to be done each week (many use the church letter and emails). What do you guys think about this? Any other ideas?
Most likely, life will happen and volunteers will not be able to garden on their designated dates or may drop out completely. What kind of backup plan can we come up with to ensure that the garden is taken care of, and who will be responsible for carrying out the plan? Any ideas? Does anyone know how garden clubs handle this kind of thing?
We’re proposing just one 4’ x 12’ raised bed on the church grounds; so we’d like permission to use the water faucet on the side of the church office. We will not need a rain barrel for this small garden. We’re receiving the boards for free from Earth Touch. A pickup truck load of dirt is free from the City (or costs $10 per load—will check). We may ask Ace Hardware for a composted cow manure donation. We've asked the Ag. Extension Agency to donate seeds, and they are going to donate some. Robert Mauney is going to be our Master Gardener. We will also ask for individual donations from church members, and we’ll see if we can get a corporate sponsor, too, for cage construction materials. We probably won’t need to raise more than $50-$100 total, if that much.
Members of our Sunday School class will build these beds and clean them up in the fall. We will also build the trellises and bunny cages.
Our class is also going to have three additional raised beds in our own front yards to raise produce for the people of El Buen Pastor.

3. What sort of waivers will be signed (if any) for church members prior to gardening? Will this be open to the general public? If so, what sort of waivers will be used? Have the waivers been reviewed by KBC attorneys?
We have based our waiver and official guidelines on the legally approved waiver and guidelines of Covenant United Methodist Church. They have not yet been approved by KBC attorneys. Would you all like to invite the public to help us with our gardens?

4. Have any alternatives been researched, such as alternative locations with more sun? Could suitable garden spaces be located closer to the recipient group?
The area behind the church gets at least 6 hours of sun a day, which is the requirement for a successful vegetable garden. We have not searched for alternative garden spaces in public places, because we wanted to present this to KBC as a way to build community within our church as a whole to anyone who is interested. We also wanted the support of our church name and community in doing the work that Christ has called us to do—feeding the hungry.