“Well, why don’t we have a go of all this land?” one of Ann McPartlin’s fellow parishioners asked over a decade ago at what is now St. Francis Church in North Bellmore, a New York suburb 35 miles from Manhattan.
It was 2011, and the parishioners had heard of grants being given by Episcopal Ministries of Long Island, which supports parishes and faith communities involved in bringing the faith “from the pew to the public square.”
McPartlin, an English teacher, wrote the grant for the Garden at St. Francis, a community garden that offers fairly priced produce to the North Bellmore community and shares the first ten percent of its harvest with those in need.
“The past couple of years have been a little bit down,” McPartlin said of the garden’s output. Still, she and other volunteers—around 10 to 15 every season—have tried new approaches, including the use of cattle panels. She confirmed what the Long Island Herald and Episcopal Ministries’ website have reported: “This year’s harvest is among the garden’s best.”
“It is one of the best,” McPartlin told The Living Church, to the extent that even “the weeds are doing well, too.”
According to Episcopal Ministries, the produce from the garden, including potatoes, beans, and tomatoes, helps address rising food insecurity across Long Island—a stark reality faced by a community only an hour’s drive away from the Hamptons, an enclave of America’s wealthiest citizens.
A 2023 study by Feeding America showed a 10 percent increase in the number of people grappling with food insecurity in Nassau and Suffolk counties (North Bellmore is in Nassau). The increase means that one in 12 residents of Long Island—or an estimated 240,000 people—experience food insecurity.
“Food insecurity on Long Island has intensified since the pandemic,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest Food Bank, a hunger relief and human services organization.
“The federal government’s reckless decision to cut spending on emergency food programs is expected to further increase these alarming numbers, along with the number of families seeking the region’s emergency food support system, including many who have never needed such services before.”
The Rev. Grace Flint, rector of St. Francis since May 2024, observed that many in the community are less willing to admit they’re dealing with hunger. “Not that anyone likes to admit it,” she added.
That’s why the farmers market, operated by volunteers and open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from April to September, has become an important gathering place for those in North Bellmore. All people can avail themselves of the garden’s fresh produce, including those using Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons.
Flint described the market’s participants as diverse, including “People who aren’t involved in the church.”
“We have local high school students … people who participate in other faith communities … people who have no faith [tradition] at all,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for people to come together … who might otherwise not meet, just in the course of their daily lives.”
Flint quoted the codified mission of the garden ministry: “The Garden at St. Francis strives to address food insecurity through a reverent and diverse partnership with the community and the earth, with a vision of creating a community where all are welcomed and nourished.”
“We’ve worked pretty hard the past couple years to really hone in on what the mission is,” Flint told TLC. “And what it is that brings us together in this time of great division, and I would even say uncertainty.”
McPartlin’s late husband, Joseph, had been an active member of the parish. A bench in the garden honors his memory.
She remembers that years ago a young man would sit on the bench while she and other volunteers worked. At first, he did not interact.
“The next season he might walk over and look around a little bit,” McPartlin recalled. “And then the next season he might start to talk to someone.” The young man, who McPartlin said may have been on the autism spectrum, gradually began engaging more fully, eventually becoming both a volunteer and a customer, visiting the market with his mother.
“That told me personally that we were doing the right thing,” McPartlin said, “that he felt … it’s a safe space.”
St. Francis was the first garden ministry funded by Episcopal Ministries of Long Island, said Mary Beth Welsh, executive director. It’s a model later replicated at other parishes. She said members of the St. Francis garden team have served as mentors to others parishes building similar programs.
“Over the years, St. Francis has expanded their ministry by fostering new relationships and welcoming groups from the community to use the garden for educational and therapeutic activities,” Welsh said. An earlier Herald report mentioned the garden’s connections with Helen Keller Services for the Blind and Life’s WORC, an organization for people with special needs.
The garden spans about half an acre and can be seen from the church’s windows. Flint said parishioners can look out at the garden while she preaches. The garden, she said, preaches. It showcases a whole life cycle—vibrant, growing, and full of life during the harvest season, and in winter, cold and resting.
Flint added that the parish, through its garden ministry and other spaces—such as a labyrinth—has been intentional in welcoming people onto its property. “We want to do what we can to share the abundance God has given us with our neighbors in a tangible way,” she said.
Episcopal Ministries has given St. Francis a grant to fence the garden, since its produce attracts more than just human interest.
“We have an abundance of bunnies on the property that would be very interested in eating produce before we get a chance to give it away to humans,” Flint said. “They have plenty of other things they can eat on the property. They are not going hungry.”
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
