HOPE grows where the garden goes - Dubois County Free Press, Inc.

Tins full of dirt awaited the students. They filled the egg cartons and then planted the seeds for the HOPE Garden.

Most of the dirt made it into the hundreds of egg cartons lining the tables.

But the controlled chaos of six second-grade classes planting thousands of seeds at the Memorial Hospital Lodge Friday morning wasn’t a clean affair.

With fingers barely filling the surgical gloves provided by the hospital, the second-graders lined up around the tables and planted seeds in the egg cartons. The seedlings created will be transplanted to a new two-acre community garden on the hospital property on South Newton Street sometime in April.

Ranging from tomatoes, beans and gourds to fruits and berries, the goal is to provide local food banks and schools with fresh vegetables produced on the plot.

Aaron Escobar, 8, of Mrs. Messmer's class, had some trouble getting his glove on prior to planting the seeds. — Aaron Escobar, 8, of Mrs. Messmer’s class, had some trouble getting his glove on prior to planting the seeds.

Last year, Memorial Hospital had about a three-quarter-acre garden that provided fresh fruit and vegetables to the hospital’s staff and patients. But this year, the hospital foundation is expanding that impact into the community to help food-insecure families have access to fresh foods.

“There are, believe it or not, kids in our county that take food home on the weekend so they have enough to eat when they can’t get meals from the school,” Foundation executive director Mike Jones said.

According to most recently available data, about 11 percent of kids in the county are food-insecure.

Jones added that the Affordable Care Act is also pushing the move to create a community-wide health impact. “You are talking about population health,” he said. “The movement is to keep people out of hospitals and one way to do it is to eat the proper foods.”

Cole Leinenbach, 8, of Mrs. Pieper's class, made sure he had a seed in his gloved-hand before pushing it into the soil. — Cole Leinenbach, 8, of Mrs. Pieper’s class, made sure he had a seed in his gloved-hand before pushing it into the soil.

Jones sees the Hope Garden as an extension for the hospital to impact the community as well as utilize the donated property on South Newton Street. Depending on how the garden grows, he envisions raised beds to allow handicapped volunteers access to help out as well as future expansion. The large stable area that currently holds the county’s emergency command post trailer and a Memorial Hospital float could be turned into a greenhouse for year-round veggies.

Finished egg cartons lined most of the flat spaces in the stable.

“I have asked the hospital for an employee to oversee the process in the future,” he added.

For now though, the HOPE (Helping Others Produce Excitement) Garden will be volunteer driven utilizing Fifth Street’s Wellness Committee, Memorial Hospital, Tri-Cap and the Purdue Extension’s resources.

All the seeds used in the garden have been donated by Rural King and Superior Ag, according to Jones.

“Hopefully the kids who planted these seeds will be able to come back in August and see the garden they created,” he said.

Diego Gonzalez, 8, of Mrs. Yarbrough's class gave volunteer Bob Boyles a high five as the classes left Friday morning. — Diego Gonzalez, 8, of Mrs. Yarbrough’s class gave volunteer Bob Boyles a high five as the classes left Friday morning.

Deanne Achbach and Brad Leistner volunteered to tend the garden last year but the larger garden this year will need more hands to help. Anyone seeking to help or make contributions can contact the Memorial Hospital Foundation at 812-996-8428.