Translator: Imamali Dadashzada Reviewer: Helena Bedalli
Each person can make a difference in this world for the better.
Starts with one and continues with the community.
Michael Jordan started with the Bulls in 1984.
Although he was considered the best basketball player in the world,
he did not win a championship until seven years later in 1991.
It wasn't until he formed a close team around him
that he achieved the ultimate goal of winning championships.
Now I'm not Michael Jordan, but I'm a firm believer
that one person can make a difference
but a team of people can make a huge difference in the lives of many.
We need to use teamwork now more than ever
to help feed our growing population of new Americans.
The population of our country is rapidly changing
and our cities are experiencing and growing number of new Americans
who were born in a foreign country and settling here.
My city has over 10,000 new Americans
which represents 5 percent of our population.
New Americans are looking for community, relationships, and good healthy food.
So that is exactly why we created
Growing Together a Community Garden Ministry.
Ten years ago,
a team, our church pastor, our church president,
a community liaison and a school principal met together
to discuss the new American population, and how we could better serve them.
One of the ideas was to start a community garden at an outreach church.
My friend Tom said, "Jack knows a lot about tomatoes."
I remember that call at 10:30 that night.
I lay awake planning the garden.
The mission was adopted to provide a safe place
for our new American neighbors to meet new friends, grow food and relationships.
So the journey began in a small garden on church property.
We started with eight families.
Part of the garden was plots which the individual families planted together.
The balance of the garden was a community garden
which we grew together; worked on together.
We found out that the areas that we worked on together,
did much better than the individual plots.
Today, Growing Together's strength is its unique environment as a shared garden,
and weekly scheduled.
Shared work, shared harvest:
In addition to this idea and the community
we have these foundation principles in place
to make a difference in our community.
Community, not charity: we all work side-by-side,
longtime community members, and new Americans.
Everyone is on equal footing and
everyone shares the fruits of our collective labor.
It doesn't matter if the person next to you is a millionaire or on assistance.
In the garden we are on equal footing.
The sense of community and friendship is unmistakable when you enter the garden.
Old friends, new friends, laughing, greeting each other and sharing.
The community that has arisen from Growing Together
now extends beyond the garden gates.
Integration is when two communities live side-by-side with little interaction.
We strive to be inclusive where friendships and communities
cross the ethnic boundaries.
We don't simply work together for two hours per week
and go our separate ways.
We become involved in each others lives, friendships beyond those garden gates.
Empowering not enabling:
Each participant is responsible to the whole in their commitment
to nurture the plants throughout the season.
Hard work brings honest food to the table.
The old adage, "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day,
teach a man to fish, feed him for a life",
applies here and empowers the gardeners to benefit from their hard work.
Teamwork: the organizing of the garden is work.
And each year seems to bring a new set of challenges and programming.
Whether it's a last-minute offer of new land available to garden,
or the beginning of a new partnership,
the core volunteers use teamwork to cover these various duties.
Likewise in the gardens,
unprompted teams of gardeners are set up to accomplish these tasks.
Teamwork builds the trust which is imperative to build the community
I close my letter that I write to the gardeners each week:
"Many hands make light work."
The results: 10 years ago we had one garden, today we have six gardens.
Ten years ago we had eight families, today we have over 150 families.
In 2015, we helped with two community events.
One was a community meal, which we served over 500 people in the park
using produce from our garden.
The second was garden planting day
which 10 community gardens in Fargo participated on special projects.
The produce: 46,000 pounds of food, that's 23 tons.
This food is shared with the families, and also sold to sustain our program.
The benefits of our program: One is the nutritional part.
Many of the new American families that come to America have a limited income.
Fruits and vegetables are very expensive in the stores.
The second is the social aspect.
The new Americans coming together to meet with their culture
and also with the new volunteers.
Gardening can bind people in a way that nothing else can
and we are proof of that.
And just like Michael Jordan,
when you form a great team, anything is possible.
Thank you
(Applause)