The St. Veronica garden was started around 2017 or so…I am not sure because I did not help build it initially. Then, during the covid years, nothing was planted for at least 2 seasons. The past three years I have been managing it. The initial purpose of the garden was to provide food for the food insecure. We currently take produce to the House of Mercy food bank in Manassas. However, I have found that the garden has several other important uses/contributions to parish life. One contribution is that we grow a lot of flowers, which are beautiful both in the garden and cut and displayed at home or in the church or in front of statues around the property. Another contribution we make is to the parish school. We have had several groups of children come out and work in or visit the garden for lessons over the years. We also give away a lot of produce right on site as a way of fostering community at St. Veronica. The garden is very close to the parish office, and if someone is in the garden working, the volunteer is likely to have have folks stop by to say something or ask questions. We give away food and flowers to these individuals all the time. We really want people to feel like it is their garden and does not belong to just a few volunteers. We also give away produce to the staff at the church: our priests, the teachers, the office staff, the maintenance staff, etc. For those who volunteer, the garden is a place of peace, for the most part. A lot of gardening takes place early in the morning or later in the evening, both wonderful times to reflect and enjoy God’s many gifts to us and to our parish. We have several nice statues of Mary in our garden, and she is always with us while we work.