Bee Creek UMC

Bee Creek is a United Methodist Church.

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Some members of surrounding Methodist Churches have been to the garden to volunteer.

Bee Creek UMC congregational support for this ministry has been amazing. As a church, Bee Creek tithes as part of the budgeting process, sending 10% of the budget (plus any designated giving) out into the community and the world to help where it is needed. The Farmacy project was and still is an enormous project. Bee Creek has been extremely supportive both financially and physically through out the "building" process of this ministry. All of the supplies for the beds, irrigation system, fence, electrical needs, essentially everything needed to get the garden up and running was provided from Bee Creek's Outreach funds( personal giving of congregants). All of the labor needed (putting in an irrigation system including a Cistern that runs off the roof to collect rain water, the building of the garden beds, putting up an 8ft fence and gates around the garden, planting and maintaining beds was done by Volunteers.

"Bee Creeks is a community of imperfect people who are transformed by the perfect love of God and change the world together." The Farmacy is serving real needs in the community and it is changing lives one person at a time. We started mapping out our plan to move our existing small garden to the church grounds at the end of 2019. Covid shut those plans down in March. Staff members and congregants of the church got together and decided in June of 2020 that the need now to expand the Community Garden was of the utmost importance. In July of 2020 Bee Creek had 67 volunteers of all ages show up to break ground on this project. The pandemic left a lot of people out of work and struggling to buy food. Over 2100 pounds of produce was donated to Helping Hands and Camp R.A.T.T. in 2020. The garden's production had almost doubled from 2019. As of September 2021, the Farmacy has produced and donated over 2400 pounds of fresh, organic produce to help individuals take control of their health. Additionally, we would like to continue volunteer and learning opportunities for community members of all ages.

The Farmacy is providing fruits and vegetables to the Helping Hands Crisis Ministry which is located in the 78669 zip code. These services are provided for folks that are experiencing a difficult time in their lives and the goal is to give them a helping hand to become self sufficient. The population that is being served is predominately white 75%, 50 years and older who are having to take care of kids and grandkids. In addition, there has been an increase in homeless/ individuals living in old campers or tents in the area reaching out for assistance. These individuals are 40 years old and younger.
Lastly, the Farmacy has been able to supply all organic fruits and vegetables to folks in the community that are in need to eat purely organic due to medical needs (Cancer).

Bee Creek received an Action Support Grant in 2020 for $3000.00 Due to Covid, here at the church just like the rest of the world we had to change gears and get creative on how we can help others with minimal physical contact. Here at Bee Creek we decided to give our focus, energy, time and money to a Community Garden. As I stated earlier, this was an enormous project split into 2 phases. We broke ground in July of 2020 and had our first harvest in the new garden in November 2020. From January 2020 to October 2020, Bee Creek was operating 2 garden locations. While we were building the new garden site, it was important not to stop providing food to those in need, so both locations needed to be worked at for many months until we fully transitioned into the new site. ( November 2020)The funds provided helped with materials purchased at the new site, specifically our water tanks that serve as a Cistern, collecting rain water off the gym roof to supply water to the garden. Additionally, the monies helped to supply soil and vegetable plants for both garden sites.
We are celebrating completing Phase 1 of the garden, thirty, 16ft by 4ft beds of which all produce is given to those in need in the community, putting a rain collection irrigation system in place to save water and provide a clean water source to the garden.
In 2021, we received an Action Support Grant for $3000 which helped us buy a 12ft by 16ft shed for storage on the Farmacy grounds. Additionally, we have expanded into Phase 2 and have built 12 children's beds, 3raised beds and have started an educational program with the Bee Loved Pre-school. We hope/plan on putting in an orchid of roughly 16 fruit trees and a berry garden in the near future. This will be part of Phase 2. Recently, Lake Travis Highschool has started a garden club and they have been a strong supportive presence at the Farmacy.

Bee Creek UMC is grateful for all of the support that the Capital District has given us. Thank you for believing in us and this ministry.