Reader's Digest

Every month I look forward to getting our new issue of Reader's Digest. I like the humorous stories but I also really like the articles because they are about ordinary people just like me. Today I read an article about a guy name Chip Paillex who started out seven years ago by planting a garden on a 30-by-30 plot. he planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and eggplant--enough to feed his family of four, but he ended up with so much, he could not even give it away. But he found a local food pantry and by the time he delivered his last harvest, he had donated 120 pounds of fresh vegetables. The following year, with a handful of volunteers from his church,and some donated land he harvested 1,500 pounds of vegetables he donated to food banks. This year he had close to 1,000 volunteers and found some farmers to donated land. His church families would volunteer and a couple families would take one week and tend to the garden, weeding, watering, pruning and delivering the vegetables. It grew to 250,000 lbs of donated vegetables. Now a 3rd and 4th grade class is volunteering in the garden and planting seeds. Paillex stated "the program exposes kids to the idea that there are people in need and it plants the seed for giving back."

I just thought this was a great story of how God gives the increase, and how others were blessed not by just getting to eat fresh vegetables, but by actually working in the garden. Made me wish I had room for a garden in my backyard.