Ambler Housing Alliance, Beth Or grow food for needy

When the Inter-faith Housing Alliance of Ambler received a $5,000 grant for a community garden, its executive director, Laura Wall Starke, thought the flower beds outside the group's transition residence for homeless families would be the perfect location. The families would be able to walk right out the door to pick.

But Fred Beddall of Pennypack Farm in Horsham delivered the bad news after an inspection: "Are you crazy?" Electrical wires and big tree roots were embedded in the soil, the flower beds were narrow, and there was too much shade.

Starke realized she had money for a garden and no place to plant. Meanwhile, a few miles away, members of a Maple Glen synagogue were planning to turn a plot on their 14-acre campus into the fulfillment of a religious mandate.

Seven months later, the housing group and the synagogue have joined together to complete their respective missions. Congregation Beth Or planted an organic garden that supplies vegetables to the alliance community's families in need.

The partnership provides squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and corn to Hope Gardens, an apartment residence for homeless families in Ambler, and to a food cupboard sponsored by the housing group at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Abington.

"It's awesome, because I learn to make better meals for my kids without having to worry about the cost of it," said Kathy Pelusi, 27, a resident of Hope Gardens who says she rushes to get the pick of the harvest on delivery days.

Starke herself picks up about 40 pounds of vegetables from the garden every week and delivers them to the transition home and the food cupboard.

The garden is providing fresh produce during a national economic downturn that is putting added strain on food cupboards. Donations have declined at a time when more people are asking for help, according to Philabundance, a hunger-relief agency.

In 2009, the Holy Trinity food cupboard distributed 5,000 bags of food to 1,007 families, up from 3,500 bags to 825 families in 2008.

The synagogue started the garden as a mitzvah (good deed) that fulfills the principle of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). The 33-by-33-foot plot is called the Corner of the Land Garden, based on passages in Leviticus about reserving portions of the land and the harvest for others.