Charles City’s Morningside Apartments: Growing community spirit at an elevated level
FFA students help build elevated garden planter boxes to be placed at Morningside Apartments in Charles City as part of a community project. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Morningside Apartment residents, Charles City officials and police officers, high school teachers and others gather for a dedication ceremony for elevated garden planter boxes at the city-managed apartment complex. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Susan Jacob explains how the FFA garden planter box project came about at a dedication ceremony Wednesday afternoon at Morningside Apartments in Charles City. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Bret Spurgin, Charles City High School vocational agriculture and FFA teacher, gets help dumping soil into one of the planter boxes from Dnesha Smith (left) and Lyla Triplett. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Jim Lundberg, Charles City High School vocational agriculture and FFA teacher, dumps a bag of soil into a garden planter box. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Erica Chick (left) and Melissa Clough carry a bag of garden soil to the garden box planters at Morningside Apartments. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Erica Chick explains all the different vegetables (arranged along the building) available to be planted in the raised garden boxes. Press photo by Bob Steenson
A ribbon-cutting is held Wednesday afternoon for new elevated garden boxes built by FFA students and placed behind Morningside Apartments so families at the apartments can raise their own vegetables. In the center cutting the ribbon are Melissa Clough, Erica Chick and Heidi Nielsen. Press photo by Bob Steenson
Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews helps carry a garden box to its location at Morningside Apartments. The boxes were built by CCHS FFA students. Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com
A lot of community connections combined to provide a source of future fresh produce for families at Morningside Apartments in Charles City.
FFA advisors and students from Charles City High School delivered eight elevated garden planters to the apartment complex Wednesday afternoon, where – after a brief ceremony and ribbon-cutting – they were filled with soil and then planted with vegetables.
Susan Jacob, a former high school teacher who is an ISU Extension Service Master Gardener, said she was at a Charles City farmers market and ran into Erica Chick, who is serving a term with AmeriCorps and who Jacob had worked with on another project.
Chick was talking about ways to help families grow fresh food, and Jacob said, “Well, I have this other program — let’s work together,” Jacob said.
Earlier this year, Jacob had applied for and received a $4,000 Growing Together Iowa grant for Floyd County through Iowa State Extension Service, to be used to give qualifying families an opportunity to use some of the plots at the Clark Street community garden to grow fresh produce for themselves and to donate to the Messiah Food Pantry.
Not all of the grant money was used for that project, so they came up with the idea of building raised garden planters to be used at Morningside Apartments.
Jacob said she used to teach with Jim Lundberg, a vocational ag and FFA teacher at the high school, so she contacted him about having some FFA students build the planters, using some of the funds from the grant for materials.
The planters, made of treated lumber with aluminum screening on the bottom to allow for drainage, were placed behind the Morningside Apartments Wednesday afternoon.
Chick, who lives in Charles City, said, “I believe that a little love, a little extension of help goes a long way. Helping a little bit can tear down walls.
“What I want to show my daughter and everyone around here is you don’t just start with yourself,” she told the Press. “You have to extend yourself to other people in the community. That’s what makes you a part of the community. You do something about what’s going on out here in the world. This was a great opportunity to do this.”
Melissa Clough is the coordinator for the Community Partnership for Protecting Children with the Iowa Department of Human Services for FMC (Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw counties) and P4C (Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Winnebago and Worth counties).
“We see many of our duties as protecting children, and what we do is to partner with agencies, such as AmeriCorps Partnering to Protect Children,” Clough said at the dedication of the planters.
“We want to make sure we look out for kids, whether that’s nutrition, access to food, child abuse, child safety in any way, shape or form, and that is why we’re here and we really greatly appreciate the partnership with the school, the mayor, the city, Police Department, everyone,” Clough said.
Chick said more than $200 worth of vegetable starter plants, including broccoli, cauliflower, three or four different peppers and three or four different tomatoes, along with seed packets for carrots, cucumbers, squash and more were purchased to be planted in the raised boxes.
Watermelons and squash will be planted in FFA garden plots at the Floyd County Fairgrounds.
Jacob said additional funds from the grant will be used to buy some tools for the folks to use in the garden boxes, and she even has her eye on a small garden shed that she might be able to get to store everything in.
Jacob said that as part of the grant, the people who raise the vegetables will keep track of the amount they produce, so that can be included in a final report. Extra produce can be given to their neighbors at the apartments and will also be donated to Messiah Food Pantry.
Jacob has also enlisted the help of members of the City Improvement Association (CIA), a group that tends many of the city’s parks, to offer guidance for those who don’t have experience gardening.
“We’ll set up contacts with families, and just say, you need help, call this person,” she said, adding that she lives near the apartments and will also be available to help.
“It’s just the connections in the community, especially now, to get everybody in the community working together,” she said.
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