McClellanville clinic plants community garden

Doctors at St. James-Santee Family Health Center in McClellanville usually tell their patients that eating right and exercising go a long way toward preventing chronic diseases.

But when the nearest grocery store is nearly 30 miles away, getting nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables can be difficult.

Last month, representatives from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, clinic employees and volunteers started a project aimed at bridging that gap.

The group of about a dozen people planted vegetables and herbs indigenous to the coastal region, creating a community garden behind the clinic.

Volunteers planted rows of green beans, bell peppers and squash in four raised beds. When that was done, they made additional rows by raking up the earth into mounds and planting vegetables that need more room to grow.

"I won't have to work out now," Myra Pinckney, a registered nurse and the clinic's case manager, said, referring to the labor-intensive project.

Pinckney said that once the vegetables have grown, patients will be able to walk out to the garden and pick food to take home.

"Produce can be too expensive" for some patients, said Syndia Moultrie, a registered dietitian who works with DHEC, and the closest grocery store to the Tibwin Road clinic is 27 miles away in Mount Pleasant.

One patient, Clemond Harrell, already was getting his hands dirty. He dug through the dirt, explaining that his parents taught him the farming skills needed to survive. Harrell helped instruct the group on planting techniques, throwing in, "You're not doing that right," as he told volunteers to add more water and showed them how to rake the soil. The squash he planted outside his McClellanville home already was prime for picking, he said.

George Bush, a DHEC social worker, plans to apply for grant funding for the clinic's project. Those funds would be used for an irrigation system and a fence to keep out deer. Bush installed a fence on his own, but he hopes to be reimbursed for it, Pinckney said.

Where money will come from in general has been a big question hanging over the clinic.

It has doubled in patient numbers since Roberta Pinckney, the outgoing chief executive officer, took the helm in 2002, but federal budget cuts would reduce the clinic's grant funding by half, Roberta Pinckney said.

The St. James-Santee Family Health Center serves 6,000 patients at its four McClellanville locations. About 3,600 of them are uninsured.

Myra Pinckney expects the St. James-Santee clinics to feel the financial impact at the start of its new fiscal year July 1. The administration plans to cut its outreach employees from full to part time in July unless it can come up with other funding.

Employees planted the garden using just $300 in seed money from the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. Bush plans to ask for grant funding from the Coastal Community Foundation but won't learn if the project will receive the funds until August.

If the grant comes through, community gardens also would be built at two other St. James-Santee clinic locations.

Reach Jessica Miller at 937-5921.