The Connecticut Department of Public Health in collaboration with the Connecticut Culture Change Coalition has awarded Saint Mary Home a $2000 grant to support the purchase of materials to construct raised garden beds.

 

According to Sister Maureen M. Reardon, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Mission and Compliance Officer for Mercy Community Health, "This Culture Change Grant will effect a chain of community-changing events.  Growth will begin with our residents, continue in the courtyard gardens, and extend to people in need throughout greater Hartford."  Sister Maureen explained that Saint Mary Home colleagues will work alongside residents to plant and tend a vegetable garden that will bear produce that will be sent to a local shelter for use in preparing nutritious meals for the homeless.  They will also cultivate flower beds for the express purpose of producing floral sprays that can be given to the residents of Saint Mary Home on special occasions in their lives.

 

"For many of our residents, the vegetable and flower gardens will give an experience that they either never experienced or have not experienced in many years.  It will provide them with an opportunity for creative planning and design, intellectual stimulation and aesthetic appreciation," Sister Maureen said.

 

The Connecticut Department of Public Health made the Culture Change Grant opportunities available to Connecticut's nursing homes.