By Camden Staton
Contributing writer
Over the course of the summer, Wheatland Lutheran Church grew a significant amount of food and donated it to a local food bank. Pastor Chuck Miller, who has been at the Wheatland Lutheran Church for four years, is the head man in charge of this operation.
The garden started out as a small project for an ethics class that Miller was taking at the time, but ended up becoming a full-blown operation that grew an acre of locally grown vegetables ready to be sent to the Botetourt Food Pantry at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Fincastle. In fact, just this year the church donated 1,200 pounds of fresh veggies to the food bank.
The garden grows a variety of vegetables, such as squash, carrots, radishes, potatoes, and corn. This past growing season, 27 people helped out with planting the seeds. On a regular basis, 15 congregants of Wheatland Lutheran Church help out with the garden.
While help normally comes from members of the church, Miller is considering opening the experience more to the public and letting it become a hands-on project for people who live locally.
“It’s still very much in its infancy stages,” Miller explained. “I see a lot of opportunity with this.” He also talked about planting fruit trees and raising chickens to branch out on what the church is already doing.
Since the church garden started, which was about four years ago, it has come quite far. They’ve even started a Tractor Treat, which mimics a trunk or treat but with more agricultural influence. They bring in tractors so kids can see them while also giving out candy since it’s close to the spooky season. Last year, they had around 600 people in attendance and it had a lot of good feedback which led to the decision for this year Tractor Treat to leave some potatoes in the ground so they can dig them up for this event.
Miller is very adamant about involving the community more in everything the church is participating in. He wishes for their cause to continually grow and remain very prominent in the community as they progress.
