Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group awarded the Community Gardens program with an Above and Beyond Service Award Saturday, July 11, at Heritage Days.

“We are thrilled to receive this recognition for all of our hard-working garden volunteers,” said Nicole McAlexander, director of Southeast Linn Community Center (SELCC). “The community garden project is a perfect encapsulation of the work of SELCC – bringing together volunteers and generous community members to ensure all of our neighbors have access to delicious, nourishing food.”

“I think it means so much that we’ve been recognized for providing fresh food for our neighbors and our community,” said Cindy Pospisil, one of the original creators of the Lisbon community gardens.

“It feels like we’re doing something right,” said Beula Dvorak, Linn County Master Gardener. “One of the missions of the Linn County Master Gardener Program is we’re fighting food insecurity, and the gardens in Lisbon and Mount Vernon are examples for other community gardens of what can be done to benefit local food pantries.”

The community gardens have come a long way in roughly seven years’ time.

Cindy explained that when they started many of the volunteers were novice gardeners, and the gardens had no direct water access. Cindy said they had help originally with someone who helped till the soil, but volunteers were responsible for planting, watering and caring for the garden after that.

“We’d have to lug big, blue buckets of well water to the garden whenever we needed to water the plants,” Cindy said.

As well, their location had a lot more rocks in the soil, and the gardens were very low to the ground. It meant that taking care of those gardens took a little more labor. But they did it for the love of their community.

In 2018, the first year of the garden, they grew more than 700 pounds of food that they shared with the community.

In 2019, the gardens were helped with support from the Linn County Master Gardeners program, providing the gardens with seeds, knowledge and additional volunteers to help at the gardens.

“We definitely became aware of the community gardens in the Lisbon community in 2019,” Dvorak said.

The summer of 2020 saw the addition of 12 raised garden beds at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center, increasing the growing space in both communities and production of local vegetables.

Last year, in the late spring of 2025, the Lisbon community gardens moved to their permanent location at Seeds of Faith Lutheran Church. SELCC had received a FARE grant that was used to purchase a cooler for the fresh vegetables to be kept at SELCC, a garden shed and the materials used to construct the raised beds at Seeds of Faith Lutheran Church. The FARE grant was administered by Linn County Food Systems Council from American Rescue Plan Act funding.

“That permanent location has just been wonderful,” Cindy said. “We have raised beds, so our maintenance on the garden is reduced. There’s much fewer rocks, and we now have a steady crew of volunteers who assist at the gardens every week.”

“The partnership with Seeds of Faith has been incredible, McAlexander said. “The location is much easier to manage – with accessible parking and easy access to water. Church members have joined as garden volunteers. The church has held activities in the garden including yoga and children’s classes. We are very grateful to Seeds of Faith for sharing their space and partnering with us.”

As well, the proximity to the church has given an easier access to water for the gardens.

Cindy said crews are in the gardens very early in the mornings during the hot days of summer to do their shifts.

In 2025, more than 7,200 pounds of locally grown produce were grown between the Mount Vernon and Lisbon gardens. McAlexander said that a total of 47 different volunteers now help with the gardens, contributing more than 650 hours of volunteer service. There is a core group of 14 volunteers who do the majority of the work throughout the season.

Dvorak said that volunteers like Sue Astley at Mount Vernon and Jessica Wiskus at Lisbon, both master gardeners themselves, help the gardens day to day operations, and the Linn County Master Gardeners provide seeds and plants at the beginning of each growing season to help the gardens get started.

Dvorak also helps lead many of the volunteer programs at both SELCC and LBC with area children during early outs and the summer, educating them about plants.

“We try to bring in garden related activities and crafts,” Dvorak said.

In one of her recent classes, Dvorak was teaching how crops like certain crops can grow from seeds, and others, like celery roots and even carrot tops can continue to grow when replanted. That led one of the participants to experiment with some of the leftover vegetable parts in their own home after the class.

That goes to why Dvorak, a former teacher, loves these classes so much – an ability to share that love of gardening with youth.

And between 2018 to 2025, more than 30,000 pounds of produce have been distributed to the community, including those raised by local volunteers and the Share A Row program – where farmers grow extra crops and share them with the local food pantry.

Dvorak said the Share a Row program was one of Linn County Master Gardeners efforts as well to help benefit local food pantries with fresh food during growing seasons.

“The food pantry especially loves having that fresh produce during the summer time to offer to the community,” Dvorak said. “It’s another way we’re trying to fight food insecurity as much as we can.”

Vegetables like kale, eggplant, carrots, tomatoes, green beans and snap peas are things that are grown in the garden during the proper season.

“Fresh produce is expensive and difficult to source, so having this local, high-quality food readily available is wonderful,” McAlexander said. “We especially enjoy using some of the produce in our summer meals program.“

“I have loved working in these gardens and encourage anyone who wants to help to get involved,” Cindy said. “Help however you can.”

“I have really enjoyed seeing a community of people step up and all work together with a common cause to help both these community gardens thrive,” Dvorak said.

If people want to get involved with the community gardens, contact Molly at [email protected] or

319-455-2844