Organic garden in Columbia, MO, brings two faiths together to raise food for needy families

From left, Larry Morrow, Mike Gordon, Molly Wright and Mary Beth Litofsky pick okra and tomatoes at the interfaith garden behind Congregation Beth Shalom. Photo by Marcia Vanderlip/Tribune.

This year, the interfaith garden has already donated more than 500 pounds of produce to The Central Pantry, St. Francis House, the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen, as well as to individual families in need.

By Marcia Vanderlip
Columbia Daily Tribune
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Excerpt:

On this particular Monday, the produce selection had held only a few bags of carrots until Lowenberg showed up. He brings produce to the pantry three times a week. It all comes from a 40-foot-by-50-foot garden plot of former farmland behind Congregation Beth Shalom, a Jewish house of worship. The garden there is tended by volunteers from Beth Shalom and from the Newman Center, which is a Catholic congregation.

The first “interfaith” seeds in this garden were planted in 2006. That’s when Mary Beth Litofsky, who is Catholic, moved to Columbia from Massachusetts with her husband and two children, who observe the Jewish faith. Litofsky joined Congregation Beth Shalom with her family, and she also became a member of the Newman Center. She was looking for volunteer opportunities for her two children and found them in a fallow field behind Congregation Beth Shalom.

Read the complete article here.