The following post is from Megan Pike, a student at Truett Theological Seminary and one CBF’s Collegiate Congregational Interns (CCI) at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. This blog is included as part of a series of posts from CCI-ers who will share about their summer experiences.

This summer, I have had the opportunity to participate in CBF’s CCI program with Calvary Baptist Church of Waco, Texas. While this is my home church, serving as a staff intern has been a completely new experience for me. Prior to this internship, I have never worked alongside church staff before having always worked with para-church ministries.

With an emphasis of working with the collegiate and missions ministries at Calvary, I have had the opportunity to help participate in the Calvary Community Garden/Baylor University Line Camp partnership. This partnership exists to help give incoming Baylor freshmen an opportunity to spend a morning serving in the community. Calvary welcomed two Baylor Line Camp groups this summer, one in June and another in July.

These groups of about 30 incoming freshmen came to Calvary’s Community Garden, which sits across the street from the church in an open lot, to first learn about why we have a community garden. Our pastor, Jim Coston, took the opportunity to educate Line Campers of the need for access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the 76707 zip code.

Coston shared with Line Campers that within walking distance of the church, one could easily get a soda, bag of chips and cookies, but would have to travel between one and three miles to find a supermarket that had fresh fruits and vegetables available for purchase.

Access to fresh fruits and vegetables help consumers make healthier food choices; this key of proximity has been significant in recent research which has revealed that obesity and poverty/hunger issues go hand in hand. When consumers do not have access to fresh food options the alternatives often lead to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and so on.

Earlier in the summer I had the opportunity to watch the documentary film, A Place at the Table, which was hosted locally by the Texas Hunger Initiative. This film opened my eyes to the real needs of our hungry neighbors. While many, me included, do not realize the hunger issues that surround us, they are indeed present and disturbing.

Allison Aubrey of NPR summarizes the film this way: “… A Place at the Table, peels back the curtain on the problem of food insecurity, weaving together the stories of low-income Americans who struggle to put healthy food on the table…”

Later in the blog Aubrey quotes Michael O’Sullivan of the Washington Post, who said, “’The problem, as Table shows, isn’t that the next meal never comes,’ O’Sullivan writes. ‘It’s that when it arrives, too often it is filled with empty calories.’” Being informed by this powerful film along with participating in Calvary’s Community Garden has helped me to actively help address food insecurity issues in my community.

After the groups of Line Campers were able to hear a bit about why Calvary started and maintains a community garden, it was time to get to work. Line Campers had the opportunity to participate in the full cycle of gardening: weeding, harvesting, turning over soil/compost, watering and seeding.

For one group assigned to harvesting carrots, when asked if they had ever harvested vegetables before, only one of the five students harvesting said yes. Upon further questioning, the students shared that the experience of gardening was “fun” and helped them feel more “connected.”

In the midst of our busy lives we can feel less and less connected to the things we eat and how they got to our table. By serving alongside these students in Calvary’s Community Garden, I am grateful for the opportunity to plant seeds of hope—literally and figuratively—which in turn helps to provide fruits and vegetables for those in the 76707 zip code.