Niles Township Approves Community Garden for Local Food Pantry

Gardeners, get your spades and your hoes ready.

The Niles Township Board on Monday night approved plans for a garden – to be cared for by volunteers – on the grounds of the township office, 5255 W. Main St., Skokie, and proposed setting aside up to $5,000 for the project.

Beth Lindley, a social worker in the Village of Skokie’s human services division, presented the plan to the township board with the help of Cynthia Carranza, who manages the Niles Township Food Pantry.

The plan is an extension of a program that the Skokie Commission on Family Services started last year, Lindley said. Several commissioners who are also gardeners suggested approaching people who had plots in Skokie’s community garden to ask them to donate excess produce to the food pantry. Then they approached vendors at the Skokie Farmer’s Market and asked them to donate extra produce.

By the end of the growing season, the gardeners and farmers had donated 2,000 pounds of fresh produce, Lindley said.

The fresh vegetables fill a need for the food pantry clients, who usually receive packaged goods, Carranza said. The food pantry serves Niles Township, which includes Morton Grove, Skokie and Niles.

The 50-by-48-foot plot that will be used for the food pantry garden is east of the food pantry building, adjacent to Main Street. Carranza said she’d like to grow vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and carrots, as well as herbs such as basil, cilantro, chives, parsley, rosemary and sage.

Volunteers from Skokie’s family services commission are already on board, Lindley said, as are members of the food pantry board and members of St. Paul Lutheran Church.

“There are enough people who are ready to do this,” Lindley said.

Among them is Bill Zimmer, husband of Niles Township Trustee Maggie Zimmer. Bill Zimmer, a regular food pantry volunteer, did much of the planning work.

The estimated cost to the township is about $3,000 for supplies and equipment, with up to $2,000 more allotted to remove soil if testing shows it is not suitable for growing food.

However, the actual cost could be less if people donate supplies, Lindley said.

Meanwhile, gardeners who have their own plots will be encouraged to continue donating produce, as will vendors at the farmer’s market.

Carranza said she also is reaching out to organizers from the Morton Grove Farmer’s Market, which celebrated its first year in 2010, to see if vendors there would like to donate.