Greenville Community Garden and Orchard Activities
BB&T Lighthouse Project Improves Community Orchard
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” Now in its 12th year of service, the BB&T Lighthouse Project is a companywide service initiative that involves thousands of employees to solve community needs. Whether it is uplifting communities, inspiring others, or building better lives and communities, Truist provides equal opportunities to thrive.
Truist delivers grant opportunities for workforce development, small business capital, affordable housing, and essential community service needs. In regards to community service needs, the Greenville Community Orchard received funding for an outdoor cooking space that includes a fire pit, cooking grates, and a mesh ash screen. Future events will be held at the Community Orchard using this fire pit, to host cooking demonstrations, community talks, and cookouts. Truist continues to invest and give back to the community by collaborating with nonprofit organizations such as Love a Sea Turtle.
In addition, LAST focuses on youth mentorship and personal development by implementing service-learning and leadership opportunities. The lighthouse project supports the strides that LAST is making by continuing to develop and mentor the youth. When asked about the importance of giving back to the community one Truist employee Tracy Turner stated “community is important to me because I consider my community my family.” Furthermore, I asked another employee the same question, and he replied “you can help drive good things and positive things into your community by taking action.” The BB&T lighthouse project is making the world a better place and I witnessed this experience firsthand.
Throughout this week-long project, these employees displayed passion, demanding work, and a sense of urgency to complete this project on time. Greenville Community Orchard is grateful to have the lighthouse project as a funder and will continue to build upon this relationship in the future.
Purple Pantry Bok Choy Distribution
On Thursday, October 14th, the Greenville Community Garden and Purple Pantry collaborated to distribute 30 plants/bunches of Bok choy to students and community partners. Participation for the giveaway was significantly low due to several factors. For example, the marketing strategies for the event could have been better by reaching out to more student organizations and clubs. We did not have enough time to fully promote the event and the promotion of the event was rushed. Secondly, with the produce being Bok Choy I believe many students did not engage in the activity because they were unfamiliar with the product. Furthermore, some ways we could break down those barriers are providing cooking demonstrations for students, providing tastings for unfamiliar produce.
Our goal is to expose students to different foods and work to change their perspectives about certain foods to eliminate food insecurities and poverty measures. We had 6 students pick up Bok Choy and the rest of the quantity was donated to Joy’s Soup Kitchen. With Plans to distribute collard greens soon, we hope to increase our student engagement moving forward.