Springfield Community Gardens has more than a dozen gardens in the city maintained by volunteers who share the harvest and provide fresh produce for community refrigerators that are free to anyone.
The produce grown at Victory Garden is used for Victory Mission, an organization helping men and women leave poverty. Services include meals, shelters and job training. One of the job training opportunities is culinary
experience in the Victory Mission kitchen. The kitchen prepares more than 120 meals daily. Last year, Victory Garden grew more than 400 pounds of food for the victory mission kitchen.
Victory Garden was moved last spring to a courtyard in the Commercial Street Historic District to make room for construction of a new shelter and headquarters for Victory Mission. Besides growing produce, Susan has a personal goal of making Victory Garden a beautiful and interesting part of C-Street vibe to help draw people to the locally owned stores and restaurants there.
Volunteers are welcome at Victory Garden and any of the other Springfield Community Gardens and local gardeners can donate food for the refrigerators and to Victory Mission. Visit springfieldcommunitygardens.org and victorymission.com to find out more.
