Griffin Makes Its Garden Grow

DERBY — A 2,000-square-foot community garden at Griffin Hospital will soon produce everything from thyme to tomatoes to help local residents eat healthier.

About 100 people gathered at the hospital Friday (June 22) to celebrate the project, the latest addition to Valley United Way’s successful ​“Grow Your Own” neighborhood garden program.

The program began in 2015 and assists local residents with growing fresh fruits and vegetables in their own neighborhoods while learning to garden and helping to create unity and self-reliance. Low-income area neighbors maintain and harvest produce from their gardens at no cost to the community.

The garden’s dozen wood planter boxes are seeded with a variety of fresh food — broccoli, onions, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and a variety of peppers, just to name a few.

There are also storage sheds for materials as well as two pergolas providing shade for Adirondack chairs and picnic tables. Fencing will soon be added to keep away rabbits which have been spotted nearby ​“looking here with envy at our lettuce,” Griffin Hospital President & CEO Patrick Charmel said.

Griffin’s garden — at the north end of the hospital campus near the intersection of Seymour Avenue and Division Street — is the 10th community garden started since the project began. Before its transformation into a garden, the plot used to be a small landscaped area with evergreens.

There are now four in Ansonia, four in Derby, one in Seymour, and one in Oxford, with plans to build four in Shelton over the next year, according to Joseph Pagliaro, chairman of the Valley United Way’s Board of Directors.

“When I came and saw this I thought ​‘What an absolutely glorious sight this is here in beautiful Derby,’” Pagliaro said. ​“We are just so excited to be in partnership with Pat and Griffin Hospital in the Grow Your Own program.”

“It just warms my heart to see that people will be coming together as a community to take care of their fruits and vegetables and work together to make this a better place to live in,” Pagliaro said.

Many of the gardens were financed through money donated to the Valley United Way during this year’s ​“Great Give” annual online fundraising event, Pagliaro said.

Click here to watch a Valley Indy interview with Valley United Way President Sharon Gibson Ellis about the program.

Charmel pointed out the community gardens will serve multiple purposes.

For one, they will help supplement the food residents struggling to get by obtain from local food banks.

The need is particularly acute in the Valley. A task force was created this year to focus on the issue of food insecurity co-chaired by Patricia Tarasovic, director of the Valley United Way’s Volunteer Action Center.

But as Charmel noted, ​“lack of food causes more health issues than just malnutrition.”

The most affordable foods aren’t usually the healthiest, which results higher rates of chronic health issues like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in many low-income communities.

Hospitals should be more active in improving the health of the populations they serve, rather than just treating people when they walk in the door sick, Charmel said.

“The ultimate goal is to help food-insecure residents obtain healthy fruits and vegetables to supplement what they’re getting from local food pantries as well as to encourage neighborhood residents to start their own gardens and improve their eating habits,” he said. 

“If we can help improve the nutrition of our community’s residents, we can help prevent or control many chronic diseases in both children and adults, putting them on a path to better well-being,” Charmel said.

Charmel thanked the many volunteers and corporate sponsors of the project for donating time, materials, and money, including the Haynes Group, RD Scinto, and Nicolock Paving Stones.

He also recognized Catie Poole and Natalie Glidden of Massaro Community Farm, a nonprofit organic vegetable farm in Woodbridge that partners with many community organizations and schools.

Last year the farm donated 10,000 pounds of food to organizations like Spooner House and Salvation Army, Poole said.

“The reason why gardens like this are such an important part of education is really re-educating our youth and teaching them what food really looks like when it comes out of the ground and not out of the back of the supermarket,” Poole said. 

Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan thanked Charmel for the ​“beautiful” transformation of the garden on the hospital’s property.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Dziekan said. ​“I really appreciate the partnership we’ve forged with Pat over here. I think this is phenomenal.”