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PONTIAC — A community garden in Pontiac is helping a local hospital promote continual health and wellness.
“The goal is to get all of the produce that we get out of the garden into Pontiac-area food pantries,” said Matthew Janus, one of the starters of the garden.
Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Matthew Janus checks out the tomatoes at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center community garden in Pontiac.
Janus is an exercise physiologist and wellness coordinator at OSF Saint James – John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac. The garden is on the hospital grounds, in a set of 12 raised beds built by the Pontiac Township High School FFA group. Six of the beds are new this year.
The garden helps bring healthy, fresh food to the area and also gives the volunteers who care for it a chance to take a break and get out in the sun, something Janus finds helpful for stress management.
It also helps connect the hospital to Pontiac, exercise physiologist and wellness coordinator Clare Spires said.
“I think it’s a good way to get OSF involved in the community,” she said.
Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Clare Spires waters the garden recently at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center community garden in Pontiac.
Spires is from Pontiac and has worked at the hospital for about two years. As a local, she said increasing access to fresh food is important for the community.
“It’s also been really fun to be involved,” she said.
The garden started in 2017, after Deb Howard from United Way of Livingston County reached out, Janus said. Since then it has donated more than 1,500 pounds of produce. This year’s crops include leafy greens, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, peppers and vining plants like squash. OSF St. James has also put in an orchard, though after five years it is still not bearing fruit, hospital President Brad Solberg said.
Donations or produce have already started this summer to area food pantries.
Janus has seen the garden as a learning opportunity as well.
“I don’t really have much of a history with gardening, so that first year, it was a lot of learning for me,” he said.
Raised beds at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
Right now the garden is cared for by volunteers from the hospital’s staff. Prior to COVID there were some community volunteers as well, something Janus and Spires hope to get back to in the future. Janus also hopes to someday expand distribution to some of the rural clinics connected with the hospital.
Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Matthew Janus waters the garden recently at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
“We’ve got the land, why not put it to use?” Solberg said.
The garden and its donations are addressing a prevalent need within the community.
“When it comes to Livingston County, one of the things that we have seen is that need for fresh, healthy food,” Janus said.
Transportation and affordability play into access issues, especially in the rural areas of the county. The United States Department of Agriculture considers areas directly to the north of Pontiac to be a food desert based on average income and distance to a supermarket.
Tomatoes at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
Food insecurity is one of the social determinants of health that comes up in the hospital’s Community Health Needs Assessment for Livingston County, Solberg said. The hospital has been increasing its focus on wellness and preventative care in recent years.
“(We want people) not looking to us just for medical care but for wellness, for health,” Solberg said.
The 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment found that 54% of Livingston County residents ate fewer than three servings of fruit or vegetables a day. Finances were listed as the most common reason people did not eat more fruits and vegetables.
“Healthy eating and nutrition affects pretty much every part of our body,” Janus said.
Nova Zigerell, 6, left, with mother Lin Lin, on Saturday appreciate Heliopsis helianthoides at Sarah’s Garden at the David Davis Mansion. The Bloomington mother-daughter duo attended the Glorious Garden Festival.
University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener volunteer Cheryl West on Saturday picks off invasive Beatles in Sarah’s Garden at the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington.
Shown center is Cindy Parli, of Carlock, on Saturday as she proceeds through a backyard garden off of Country Club Place in Bloomington, as part of the Glorious Garden Festival.
Holly Bess, of Normal, inspects delphinium flowers in her backyard home garden Saturday on Kristin Drive.
This fairy garden in Normal was featured as part of one of 10 stops on the Glorious Garden Festival on Saturday.
This fairy garden in Normal was featured as part of one of 10 stops on the Glorious Garden Festival on Saturday.
Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter:@connorkwood
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Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Matthew Janus checks out the tomatoes at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center community garden in Pontiac.
Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Clare Spires waters the garden recently at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center community garden in Pontiac.
Raised beds at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
Exercise Physiologist/Wellness Coordinator Matthew Janus waters the garden recently at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
Tomatoes at OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center Community Garden in Pontiac.
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