The Ecosystem of Project Host

The first thing that you see when walking towards the Project Host building is the colors. Blue walls, white birds, and colorful fruits and vegetables all painted on the outside to stand out amid the gray of the asphalt. Project Host’s garden is no different than its radiant walls. Containing around 35 different kinds of plants and produce, the garden provides fruits and vegetables to the soup kitchen, which Project Host is best known for, as well as its bakery and culinary school.

My name is Evelina Aluimos, and I am a rising junior majoring in Politics and International Affairs, as well as Urban Studies. As the summer fellow for the Gardening for Good program, my responsibilities include learning about the process of sustainable gardening and how Project Host approaches it, as well as recording the production metrics from the garden. What makes this fellowship extra special is the fact that even though my main priority is the garden, I get to dip my toes in different areas of Project Host.

There are days when I get to help out in the soup kitchen and experience a full circle moment of cutting the same green beans that I picked the day before. Or learning the intricacies of baking and using the same basil leaves that I made sure to pick before the groundhog got to them. When I think about Project Host in its full picture, I get reminded of a concept called “circular economy”, which refers to the economic model of reusing, sharing, and recycling materials for as long as possible.

The garden additionally uses a water system that waters the beds at certain times of day to save water, while also providing several composting bins for the soup and culinary kitchens. Thanks to the hard work of the garden volunteers, Project Host can receive up to 3,000 pounds worth of produce yearly from the garden. The numbers might be even higher this year because, as I am writing this at the beginning of July, the amount has passed 900 pounds. As a nonprofit organization, every penny counts, so being able to alleviate some of the stress of budgeting by having the garden provide such impressive quantities of food is what makes the garden so valuable.

But that is not all! The garden frequently welcomes children and adults alike to learn about how the produce is grown and cared for, inspiring new volunteers and children to take initiative in ways that best fit them. With the produce that is grown in the garden, Project Host can feed between 80 to 150 people six days a week. Caring for the community is at the heart of the garden and the organization. Everyone can partake in sharing either their time or resources, including the person who is currently reading this blog! By being a volunteer at the garden or the soup kitchen or providing the kitchen with food donations, you make the Greenville area a better place to live.