Lovejoy city garden feeds town's hungry

Metro Atlanta

Lovejoy city garden feeds town's hungry

Lovejoy city garden feeds town's hungry

Taytehna Williams picks chili and jalapeno peppers at the Lovejoy City Garden Wednesday, July 30. Lovejoy mayor Bobby Cartwright, started the garden to feed those in need.

Lovejoy mayor Bobby Cartwright shucks corn. The 14-acre garden has produced more than 30,000 pounds of produce that has served more than 1,500 people in the community.

Cassandra Hettermann, the Lovejoy Code Enforcement Officer, prepares freshly-picked vegetables from the Lovejoy City Garden for the short trip to the community center for distribution to those in need.

Tomatoes ready to be picked at the Lovejoy City Garden will feed the south Clayton County town's hungry.

Clayton County Detention Center inmate Anthony Roach coils an irrigation hose at the Lovejoy City Garden. The garden counts on volunteers and inmates from the county detention center, located in Lovejoy, to function.

Jalapeno peppers are among the offerings from the Lovejoy City Garden. They are given to those in need at no cost.

Local families in need can spice up their meals with freshly-grown chili peppers from the garden.

Okra, a Southern food staple, is there for families to enjoy. “We’re working-class people,” Lovejoy Mayor Bobby Cartwright says. “If a man or woman missed a day of work, something will go lacking.” It was that working-class sensibility and a yearning to reconnect with his south Georgia farm roots that prompted Cartwright to start the garden last year. With a 1949 Farmall tractor he bought as a teenager and other old farm equipment he had, Cartwright set about transforming a vacant lot that city leaders had hoped to turn into a train station. - Text by Tammy Joyner, AJC

“What I’ve seen with the elderly and the unemployed is that the biggest thing since the hard recession hit was making a choice between medicine and food,” Cartwright saiys. “Our elderly who draw Social Security get very little benefits. So the options of this garden and getting fresh vegetables from us on a weekly basis helps fill that void they don’t have the money for.” -- Text by Tammy Joyner, AJC

In the future, Cartwright envisions adding a canning system to help people store food, a place where visitors can buy the produce below-wholesale prices (food would still be free to Lovejoy citizens) and possibly some tables where visitors can play checkers. -- Text by Tammy Joyner, AJC

A menu at the Lovejoy Community Center tells residents what fresh produce is available from the Lovejoy City Garden.

Volunteer Annette Allgood washes jalapeno peppers at the Lovejoy City Garden.

Lovejoy resident Mary Gardner uses her walker to help transport a bag full of fresh produce grown at the Lovejoy City Garden.

Visit a friend in Lovejoy for supper and you may enjoy an eggplant dish with egglplant grown at the Lovejoy City Garden. On a recent Friday morning, council members Rebekah Wright and Mary Ann Carp sorted butter beans in the city’s maintenance building. Nearby, city code enforcer Cassandra Hetterman tended a pea-shelling machine. “People come up to me in the store and they’ll say, ‘Thank you so much. My children had vegetables this week,’” said Carp, who works there three to four days a week. “I’m just happy citizens recognize we’re trying to do something good for them,” said Wright, who comes a couple times a week. “This is what we’re supposed to do.” -- Text by Tammy Joyner, AJC

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Taytehna Williams picks chili and jalapeno peppers at the Lovejoy City Garden Wednesday, July 30. Lovejoy mayor Bobby Cartwright, started the garden to feed those in need.

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