During the 2024 Great American Cleanup, Keep Pickens Beautiful partnered with CARES to build a garden with the goal that the produce grown would feed the families they serve.  Fresh veggies are important components of a healthy diet, and they’re also some of the most difficult items for food banks and food pantries to distribute.  According to a 2020 study by the NIH, “Identified challenges included regional variation in fresh produce availability, long transportation times, and lack of refrigerated storage.” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6957083/)  If the produce is grown on site, those logistical issues are no longer challenges, and the community can not only have access to fresh veggies, but they can help in the garden and learn how to grow food for themselves.

The first growing season of the new garden was fruitful and educational.  Shaun, who works at CARES and is instrumental in guiding the project, spent many hours watering the garden; it became clear that an irrigation system was needed.  Also, the soil in the raised beds settled so they needed more soil and compost.  And there were a variety of other needs to prepare for new plants and seeds.

Keep Pickens Beautiful has been serving Pickens County for almost 40 years, and a lot of ‘stuff’ has been accumulating.  Near CARES, KPB has a small storage building to hold recycling bins, event displays and supplies, archival materials, and more.  The building has no shelving; everything has been piled in a relatively organized way, but it has been getting increasingly chaotic as KPB’s activities have continued to grow.