Oakland Community Garden
Since the approval of “The Garden Market” during the January 14 Board Meeting, some have asked when the building will be delivered to the Garden. Before I give you the update, let me first tell you why we are creating The Garden Market and how we hope it will impact our community.
The Garden serves about 250 people each year. We have donated nearly 6,000 pounds of food to the Lawrenceville Co-Op, families in need at Baggett Elementary School, shut-ins that can no longer attend New Hope, church members, Fire Station 20, and random community members. Since this ministry began in 2020, most of the financing has been through the two craft fair fundraisers – Spring Arts & Crafts Fair and Fall Festival – where we rent booth space to vendors, sell donated items, and sell items from things we have grown in the Garden (loofah soap, pepper jelly, etc.). The Garden Market is designed to replace at least one of these fundraisers by allowing us to fundraise on a smaller scale throughout the year. We are trying to create an easier way to fund the Garden so this ministry can continue to serve this community.
So here is the update on The Garden Market! Gwinnett County requires a permit for any structure over 120 square feet (the size of the smaller shed we purchased last year). This new structure measures 16’ x 20’ for 320 square feet. The County requires a complete set of building plans, which the shed company has been reluctant to provide. We then had to find an architectural company to create building plans for a fee. The shed company is working to provide us with some plans (but not likely all plans) to help reduce the architectural fee so we can get this project underway! If all goes well, we will have the building plans this week, and the permit will be issued shortly after that.
We knew securing a permit would be tricky since this is not something we do every day, but we seem to be on the right track. We will install electricity once we get past the permit and the structure is ordered. Gwinnett County will come back for a final building and electrical inspection. It is hard to say if the building will be in place for our Spring Arts & Crafts Fair combined with Community BBQ on May 4, but that is the goal.
Please continue to pray for this ministry. It is more complex than it looks but will ultimately be worth it. Financial contributions toward this project are greatly appreciated, too. You can include donations with your regular monthly offering by notating a portion for the Garden on your offering envelope or check; you can write a check out directly to the Oakland Community Garden; and you can give online at oaklandcommunitygarden.org/donations