Chelsea Area Garden Club Distributes Grants to Support Cooking Classes, Organic Farming

CHELSEA — The Chelsea Area Garden Club awarded $3,800 in scholarships and grants in April.

This year’s recipients are the Chelsea Senior Center, $500; the Chelsea Community Kitchen, $300; and six students in the Michigan State University Organic Farmer Training Program. Each student received a $500 scholarship.

The Chelsea Senior Center is using its grant for an intergenerational vegetable garden at the Washington Street Education Center. Volunteers broke ground for the garden, added compost and started planting cool weather crops in early April, according to center director Trinh Pifer. Two preschool classes are planting and caring for two raised beds on the site. Pifer said the center is seeking additional volunteers to help with the gardens this summer.

Summer produce will be used in the senior lunch program.

“We hope to have enough other veggies that can be frozen and incorporated into school and senior lunch programs later in the season,” Pifer said. “In late spring or early fall, some fresh produce can be used for ‘try it’ days at the school and preschool. When our hoop house is up, we have the potential to grow produce that can be incorporated into the school lunch programs.”

The Chelsea Community Kitchen, a local nonprofit that provides cooking classes to the public, will use its grant to cover guest speaker fees and materials for several no-fee classes later this summer.

MSU’s Organic Farmer Training Program is a nine-month organic farm program that teaches production and management skills to beginning and experienced farmers seeking instruction in year-round organic production. Students help manage a 10-acre certified organic farm for the farm’s primary markets, including a year-round community supported agriculture program, a produce stand on the MSU campus and campus dining services.

Students Shaylla Chess, Ami Noel Deehr, Katherine Heflick, Liesel McCleary, Carl Melms and April Plankey will use the scholarships for books, tools and other expenses associated with the program.

The Chelsea Garden Club raises money for its grants through two fundraisers— a summer plant sale and a garden walk held every other summer.

The garden club will hold its annual plant sale from 8:30 a.m.-noon on May 12, at 222 S. Main St., in downtown Chelsea. The club’s garden walk will be held 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 2. Garden walk tickets and maps are $10 per person, and are available at the Garden Mill, 110 S. Main St., Chelsea; , 3515 Central St.; Downtown Home and Garden, 210 S. Ashley St., Ann Arbor; and Manchester Pharmacy, 128 E. Main St., Manchester. For more information about the plant sale or garden walk, visit www.chelseagardenclub.com.