Florence community garden volunteers filmed
Staff writer
Those driving by the community garden in Florence Wednesday might have noticed several cameras, including one with wings flying around.
A camera crew from Scenic Road Productions was there to film a documentary for the Kansas Health Foundation, from which the Florence Community Garden has received several grants.
“They’re doing a documentary type film about a couple of gardens they help fund,” garden volunteer Phoebe Janzen said.
The crews spent several hours at the garden filming before traveling to Marion to film at Marion Senior Center and Marion County Emergency Food Bank.
Once the video is completed, it will be posted on the foundation website, but no finish date has been set yet.
Janzen said she kept having to redo portions of her interview because she couldn’t stop laughing. She told the crew about how the garden operates, how it was founded, and how the foundation grants have helped the garden.
“With their help we were able to get tools, a garden shed, a privacy fence around our equipment so the garden looks better, and a drip irrigation system,” Janzen said.
Norma Kline, who often transports produce from the garden to the senior center, spoke about how the produce benefited the center and food bank.
“It’s important to know the produce is shared,” Kline said. “The food bank is used a lot by Florence people and it’s important that people have healthy food. In this case, fresh, and no chemicals are used in the growing.”
She said produce is especially important because many seniors don’t have and can’t care for their own gardens.
Volunteer Heather Diemer said the film crew was fun. She talked about why she worked in the garden and the importance to have access to low cost healthy food to her family and community.
She enjoys working in the garden for several reasons from exercise for herself and kids, to educating her kids where their food comes from and how it grows.
“I like the convenience of the garden,” she said. “I have a sense of pride knowing that I helped plant and grow my own food.”
Working in the garden also allows Diemer to give back to the community.
“My family has gone through hard times in the past so I know how hard it can be to put food on the table and even harder, healthy food,” she said. “Produce from the garden helps others from falling into bad eating habits.”
A video compiled from film taken Wednesday will be available for viewing later.