earth care central your place to connect with your love for god's creation.

According to the Earth Care Pledge, 

"God calls us to be careful, humble stewards of this earth, and to protect and

restore it for its own sake, and for the future use and enjoyment of the human family."  

CENTRALongmont is committed to integrating environmental practices and thinking

into all facets of congregational life including worship, facilities, education and outreach.  

There are many ways to get connected through your love for God's creation.  

Join Us!  See below for several fun ways to get involved today.  

CENTRALongmont Giving gardens


In an effort to help fight hunger in our community in conjunction with caring for the Earth, Session has approved our new Giving Gardens initiative.  According to the organization Feeding America, fresh fruits and vegetables are one of the most requested food items at food banks that are often in short supply.  Also, according to Feeding America, one in 11 of our neighbors in Boulder County struggles with hunger — including more than 6,000 children [based on 2018 data, just think what this number might be after 2020].  

We would like to join this fight to end hunger in our community by both creating a new congregational giving garden at a member's property, as well as by encouraging a home giving garden army to aid us in this effort.   We are just getting started.  


How can you help?  Join us.  Reach out to Jennifer Haratsaris to be part of the team working the congregational 20'x40' plot at Ann's property.  Or find a spot in your yard, planter boxes or containers to "grow a row" or two to share with our community this summer and fall.  The fruits of our labor will be donated through The Round Pantry at Westview and through Grow and Give outlets this summer and fall.  


We will be joining a larger "food growing army" in our community organized through the Grow and Give CSU Extension project.  According to the CSU Extension, "this modern Victory Garden idea is designed for citizens to grow vegetable gardens and plant extra to share with local food banks and community members in need.  Historically, victory gardens were planted on public and private land during World War I and World War II to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Roughly 40% of the U.S. vegetables grown in those years came from 20 million victory gardens."  As we work together, we will learn how to grow food with sustainable practices, caring for bees, our soil and water supply while working to feed our neighbor and ourselves with a low carbon footprint.


HOW TO DONATE?

You do not need to wash your produce (just remove obvious dirt clumps), but please read these guidelines for Keeping Your Produce Safe for Donation.


There are several options for donating your produce:


We will start accepting the donations June 20 through the end of harvest season.  Harvest your produce and bring your "offering" with you to Sunday's service.  Place your fruit/vegetable donation in the baskets on the Giving Garden table located in the Overflow Room.  Your donation will be weighed and then shared with The Round Pantry, The OUR Center or HOPE for Longmont on Monday morning.  We will NOT be taking produce mid-week in the church office as we do not want it to sit around and spoil in the building.  Thank you for your understanding.


Or find your own Grow and Give donation site in Longmont at this link and give whenever it is convenient for you.  There are several outlets available in Longmont and other locations in Boulder County.  Print this donation label to include with your donation.   Please weigh your donation and share that information with Jennifer each time you donate.  A bathroom scale works well for weighing at home.


Thank you!

helping the round pantry reduce food waste

We love our partnership with The Round Pantry at Westview and our new initiative to help them lower their waste footprint during Pantry weeks.  Many of our members regularly volunteer each Pantry week to feed the growing numbers of food insecure in our community.  Next time, volunteer while helping the Earth.  


Each Pantry week, some of the bread, dessert or produce arrives spoiled or accidentally smashed and cannot be shared with Pantry shoppers.  This waste was often thrown in the trash by the gallons (64+ gallons most weeks).  Our Earth Care team has created 2 partnerships with local farms in our community to take produce and bread/dessert waste and use it as feed for livestock; chickens, goats, pot belly pigs and cows!  


The Pantry has asked us to help support the retraining of their volunteers to save this food waste.  It is always a joy to work at The Pantry.  Now you can help feed your Longmont neighbor and reduce the amount of waste that gets produced each week and thrown in the land fill.  Volunteer at the Pantry bagging bread or produce and help train their volunteers to save this waste for the farm animals.  Reach out to Jennifer for more details.

green up clean up!

We love to join our community in helping keep Longmont beautiful.  We participate in the annual Green Up Clean up event with others to clean-up our streets, alleys, parks and our greenways.  Each and every one of us deserves to live in a community environment that is healthy, clean and beautiful, and we all have a role in achieving this goal.  Green Up Clean Up events usually occur in April for Earth Day month, but due to COVID-19 they have been postponed to the fall.   We look forward to our next Green Up Clean Up event in 2021.

(Some of our team visiting the Eco-Cycle Facility in Boulder)


If you are interested in learning more, or joining us in this important ministry, email Jennifer Haratsaris.