Sacred Places Spring 2013 | Page 10

UPDATE on Partners: Philadelphia Office (continued) food security.” This summer, SOLID ROCK’s site manager, Amanda Johnson, will create the beginnings of an “edible forest garden” orchard for children’s education. POP will work with Johnson and SOLID ROCK church members throughout the coming year to plant fruit trees and berry bushes on an acre of unused green space in the front and back of the church by spring of 2014. POP Director Phil Forsyth predicts that the orchard will yield about 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of fruit – a massive supplement to the congregation’s food distribution program, which feeds over 200 community members every other week. The Food in Sacred Places program requires low monetary and labor inputs but produces a high return: community health improves, grassroots activism around food access and nutrition increases, and congregations actively utilize all the spaces they have, further cementing their roles as community centers. Philadelphia Advisors The Reverend Dr. Roy G. Almquist Charles B. Casper, Esq. Lary Ceisler Helen Cunningham The Reverend Yvette B. Davis Scott Doyle James Flaherty Melis