By CARL GREEN
Illinois Correspondent
Granite City – Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) Chapter 7-34-2 hosted a community cleanup day here last month in the area around the Community Garden at 2nd Baptist Church, 2115 Missouri Ave., as part of the Presidential Inaugural Committee MLK National Day of Service.
More than 30 retirees, union workers and friends worked clearing trash out of the garden, its compost box and the surrounding neighborhood despite a chilly morning. The city provided a truck to haul the refuse away.
This spring, SOAR and other groups will work the garden so the Community Care Center can provide fresh vegetables for housebound and underserved residents of Granite City, Venice and Madison.
“This collective effort will be providing healthy food assistance to hundreds of families in need,” said Jeff Rains, SOAR chapter president. “Vegetable baskets will also be transported by volunteers to the elderly, individuals with disabilities and no transportation, single parents and pregnant women – anyone who is housebound.”
For more information about the effort, or to participate, contact Rains at 618-979-4253.