Through the summer months and continuing in the fall, Statesboro green-thumbs can join together for a project to beautify the city and nourish its residents.
      Volunteers representing Keep Bulloch Beautiful, the Statesboro-Bulloch County Food Bank, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro Farmer's Market, and a local Boy Scout troop gathered Saturday to construct and open to the public a community garden benefiting local growers and the county's food bank.
      Workers broke ground on the garden, which is located at the old Sallie Zetterower Elementary School - 900 East Jones Avenue - and current location of the food bank, after one year of planning by Keep Bulloch Beautiful Director Kelly Collingsworth.
      "I have wanted to do a garden since taking the job over in May last year," said Collingsworth, who noted that similar gardens have become popular throughout the nation in recent years. "I want to see gardens pop up all over Bulloch County and Statesboro."
      "This garden is going to be a true community garden. In other communities, everyone has their own plot to work. I didn't want to do that with this one," she said. "I want everyone to come in, work the garden and reap the benefits together."
      According to Collingsworth, growers will share the garden and its yield, and be asked to donate a portion of food to the Statesboro-Bulloch Food Bank.
      "Whatever food is left, we want to give to the food bank," she said. "That is what makes this garden super unique to Statesboro. I just want the project to bring everyone together, and I believe gardening can do that."
      The garden will also be home to flowering plants.
      "The more growers, the merrier," she said. "We are up for anything. Plants do not have to be food producing. We welcome anything that will grow and add some form of beauty, whether it is a flower that blooms or food that nourishes."
      Collingsworth, along with a consortium of individuals - including Georgia Southern University professors and Food Bank volunteers - were able to realize the dream of bringing a garden to Statesboro after the Bulloch County Board of Education agreed to allow the project be constructed at the East Jones site.
      Interest in participating with the project has been expressed by various members of the community, she said, including: local church parishioners, Georgia Southern's Biology Club, GSU's Zeta Sorority and individuals that currently use the food bank.
      "We will have different people, from different walks of life, coming together for one common goal," said Collingsworth.
      Materials used to create the plot were provided by the same community it is meant to support.
Soil, manure, water hoses and many plants were donated by individuals and businesses throughout Statesboro and Bulloch County, she said.
      Collingsworth hopes the sustainable project will thrive and continue indefinitely - ideally at the East Jones site, though the Food Bank's lease expires in December this year.
      A similar gardening project - on a smaller scale - undertaken at Gentilly Gardens Assisted Living and Alzheimer's Care Community last year is still experiencing great success, she said.

      Jeff Harrison can be reached at (912) 489-9454.