At St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, what started as an initiative with faith the size of a mustard seed has grown into a garden that is feeding the minds and bodies of those in need.

The Forest Grove garden recently received a $31,000 grant from the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon Foundation to expand, with the hope of offering more for those in need.

“Here, people are hungry. We want to help that, and that’s all about service,” said Margaret Musgnung, chair of the Good News Pantry Garden Committee and a representative on St. Bede’s Bishop’s Advisory Council.

Committee Member Charlie Rhyne applied for a grant from the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon Foundation in May, and the garden was awarded the grant in mid-July.

“To our complete ecstatic joy,” Musgnung said. “We hope to expand the infrastructure of our garden by improving the irrigation system, building a Garden Welcoming Center Room and improving the pathways and entrance to the garden from Elm Street.”

In 2023, The Good News Pantry Garden began as a modest, two-garden-bed initiative and has since blossomed into a nearly 5,000-square-foot community garden that’s feeding local pantries and inspiring neighborhood collaboration.

‘We could do it here’

The garden first began after Musgnung pondered creating a small children’s garden behind the church as part of the Sunday school’s curriculum. That same day, the Rev. Marlene Mutchler at St. Bede’s overheard the Dairy Creek Community Food Web was in need of a place to put raised garden beds in a community-based garden.

“Marlene said, ‘That would be great; we could do it here (at the church).’ Then I put out some calls for help to help in the garden,” Musgnung said.

The first to sign up and help in the garden were Rhyne and Marie-Helene Rake, who, along with Musgnung called themselves the “three stooges.” The nickname started because when the three would come together to make a decision, it seemed a bit like a routine from the comedy trio.

The following year, in 2024, the garden expanded by 12 beds with six cattle gate arches between the beds.

“This vision was inspired by Marie-Helene Rake, one of the executive garden committee members. We were able to collect close to 1,000 pounds of produce during the growing season,” Musgnung said.

‘Doubling what we have’

Even after the initial expansion, the committee still felt the garden could be offering more. This spring, the garden grew again to add fruit trees and berries.

“We’ll probably be able to do more, particularly when we start getting fruit (from the) trees. We’ll be doubling (what we have),” Rhyne said. “Otherwise, (we’ve got) 1,000 pounds of just green vegetables. Now we have fruit and berries, we grow a lot of apples, a lot of potatoes, zucchini and onions.”

The garden has seven committed community members to help administrate and work the garden as supervisors, as well as over 30 people from St. Bede’s, Pacific University and neighbors who come to help in the garden.

“We decided it should be a ‘neighborhood garden’ versus a community garden as we wanted our neighbors to be included in our abundance,” Musgnung said.

Musgnung emphasizes the importance of not only feeding people through this garden initiative but also teaching others to get involved in the gardening process and learning how food is produced.

“We hope to be able to not only grow food and distribute it to our neighbors and local pantries, but to create an oasis of learning and respite for our neighbors and congregation,” Musgnung said.