2025
The garden team decided to plant a blueberry patch in 2025 due to the declining availability of volunteers to tend the vegetable garden. A blueberry patch would not need annual planting, and tending it would require fewer people and hours. The only problem was that we had to dig 70 holes to plant the bushes. Nicole Pugliese, a member of the garden team, had a son who played on the Fitch football team. She said maybe the coach could bring team members out for a day of digging. She approached Coach T.J. Parker, and he was very enthusiastic about the idea. On March 26, 2025, 32 football players and their coaches showed up to help about a dozen parishioners dig 70 holes and apply soil amendments. The work was done in 30 minutes! Enjoy the photos below of that historic day for the parish!
2022-2024
St. Joseph Garden Ministry has developed a nearly 5,000 square foot produce garden on the front lawn of the church.
Our garden ministry developed in response to a county-wide listening process done in 2022. Catholic Charities led this process for all the churches in Mahoning County. One of the most pressing needs discovered in the listening process was food insecurity. This means that many families in our county struggle to access healthy food for their daily meals.
St. Joseph parish is blessed with an abundance of tillable land. Fr. Fedor and the study team thought that we could devote some of our land to food production to help address the needs of these struggling families. And that became our purpose. The garden ministry exists to help feed hungry families in Mahoning County. We currently distribute the produce through organizations that have it as their mission to provide food for families in need. The first two organizations we are working with are Ursuline Ministries Immigrant Outreach that does a weekly food distribution and Immaculate Heart of Mary Food Pantry that does a monthly food distribution. Immaculate Heart of Mary is the sister parish of St. Joseph.
Inspired by the Catholic Social Teaching theme of Caring for God’s Creation, we are growing vegetables, berries, and herbs without the use of chemical pesticides. This is safer for the soil and for those who eat the produce.
With the help of some master gardeners, we developed a garden plan and organized a group of parishioners to prepare the soil and plant the garden. Generous parishioners donated funds to pay for the seeds, plants, and other items we needed to get started. We still have plans for a fence and compost bins.
The garden was a pattern of raised beds and worn paths. We welcomed all parishioners of all ages to walk on the paths of the garden as often as possible. The foot traffic helped keep the weeds down in the paths.
The labor intensive nature of a large vegetable garden that has no shade proved to be too much for our aging parishioners. This led to the blueberry patch described above.