We recently came upon an old poster from the Second World War. Amid the colorful drawings of peas and cabbage, peppers, tomatoes and onions were the words, "Your Victory Garden Counts More Than Ever!" Victory Gardens were popular during the First and Second World War when food was not as plentiful and people were encouraged to grow their own "for the war effort".
Today, in addition to the wars we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are also fighting an economic war where more and more of our citizens are finding it difficult to put sufficient healthy food on the family table. It was for this reason that we decided to team up once again with Pam Koner and Family to Family (http://family-to-family.org), as the summer growing season is upon us.
Our Victory Garden continues to grow in Myra, Kentucky…another small, rural community in Eastern Kentucky where residents have been impacted by the closing of nearby mines and the local food pantry reports an increase of nearly 1500 additional people seeking help. This year’s donation to Family to Family helps to provide each family with 10 chickens, 1 set of garden tools, seeds, fertilizer, chicken feed and a few other miscellaneous items. Each of the families that have been selected for this project has agreed to teach five new families in the next season, thus ensuring that more families will have a supply of healthy home-grown food available during the growing season and beyond.
Who would have thought that Victory Gardens would gain new importance close to 70 years after their first introduction to American life?
