The Hoop House at Alpena Community College grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, all in a controlled environment powered by volunteers. When it’s time to harvest, the organic produce is taken to The Friendship Room in Alpena, which serves free evening meals Monday through Saturday to anyone in the community who could use a nutritious, well-balanced dinner.

“It’s completely sourced by volunteers and private donors,” said Hoop House PR Representative Meagan Wright. “This year, we received the distinction The People’s Garden.”

The People’s Garden is a program through the United States Department of Agriculture.

“People’s Gardens empower communities to grow healthy food in a sustainable way and teach about the benefits of local, resilient food systems,” an explanation from usda.gov reads. “These gardens foster community collaboration, create jobs and green spaces, provide access to nutritious food, and benefit the environment.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Garlic hangs to dry in the medium hoop house at Alpena Community College.

“We do our own composting,” Wright said. “It helps us produce our own dirt, and it’s usually very fertile.”

There are two hoop houses at ACC, located off Woodward Avenue near the World Center for Concrete Technology. The medium hoop house was started by Dr. Tom Cook and Dr. Henry Stibitz. The bigger hoop house began in 2012 with a USDA grant, and was built by members of the Friends of the Alpena Farmers Market. It is run by volunteers, including Stibitz, Betsy Hale, Meagan Wright, Elizabeth Wright, Chris Wright, Jerry Ciarkowski, BJ Sander, Steve Houghmaster, Judy Houghmaster, Tamara Wilson, and others.

“This is where we grow, literally, tons of food, every single year,” Meagan Wright said. “It’s really phenomenal.”

Vegetables grown in the large Hoop House include radishes, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, onions, bok choy, kohlrabi, kale, and much more.

“We’re constantly trying out new crops,” Wright noted. “Seeing which ones work best, which ones give us the best yield.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Herbs are grown in pots in the fenced-in garden area at Alpena Community College. Pictured next to the herbs is the Three Sisters Garden, in which three types of vegetables that grow at different heights are grown on the same plot to save space.

She explained the process of growing organic food.

“We only use organic pesticides, organic fertilizer, that sort of thing,” Wright said. “It’s because we want to grow the best produce that we can, because the poor in our community, and the people who need food in our community deserve the best produce that we can give them.”

She added that volunteers come by nearly every day to check in and see what needs to be done, and make sure everything is growing well.

“If you’ve got 20 minutes, come drop in, pull a couple of weeds, and we’ll put you to work,” she said. “It’s a fantastic ministry to be able to do this. It lets us get down on our hands and knees and play in the dirt. And it lets us help other people in, kind of, a backstage way.”

Wright added there are perks to volunteering at the Hoop House.

“The best part about volunteering at the Hoop House is the volunteers are paid in produce,” she said. “There’s nothing like farm-fresh, homegrown produce.”

The Hoop House allows for a longer growing season.

“We have such a long growing season here,” Wright said. “We start prepping the soil in March, and we’re still growing lettuce into December. It’s incredible, because we will get multiple harvests throughout the year. So, we have a faster growing period, and we also have a longer growing season.”

She and the other volunteers enjoy working on a project that feeds the community.

“It’s really quite fascinating, and it’s so much fun to do,” Wright said. “And I don’t do nearly as much as the other volunteers here.”