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Veggies for Vets: Community garden serves homeless veterans in Fayetteville

She estimated it was a budget of about $1,000 to get the project and garden off the ground.

Rachael Riley
The Fayetteville Observer
Aug 8, 2020

Excerpt:

When Buckner started a garden in February, she began handing out vegetables along with the food items. She said it was well-received.

“So I was like, if I had some more land or something,” she said.

It was a question she posted on her Facebook page, which was seen by ServiceSource’s division manager of operations, Jim Ritcher.

Buckner has worked with ServiceSource in the past. The nonprofit supports people with disabilities, their families and caregivers with services that include financial coaching, vocational training employment opportunities, deaf services, senior services and veteran services among others.

ServiceSource has a Fayetteville office off Ames Street, and it leases about 12 acres from Cumberland County, Ritcher said.

“I told her, ‘Stacey you’ve been here. You’ve seen it,’” Ritcher said. “So that’s how we got started. I said, ‘Let’s do Veggie for Vets,’ and the light went off.”

An area previously used as a small garden by ServiceSource’s day program is now a community garden for homeless veterans.

Read the complete article here.