Food and safety — two needs that will be better met in Beaufort County after a partnership between a local church and several volunteer fire departments.

The partnership not only served as a means to expand Ruby’s Garden, a community garden run by Asbury United Methodist Church, but also a medium to train new firefighters with Bunyan, Bath and Pinetown volunteer fire departments.

Tuesday night, the departments held a simulated burn of two structures behind the church where its community garden is located, according to Jim Reed, pastor at Asbury UMC.

“(The partnership) was a win-win in the sense we needed to get the buildings cleared out for expansion of the garden, and it enabled (the departments) to use it as a training exercise for their new firefighters,” Reed said. “It’s just amazing to me how all the different things are helping us crystalize where we want to go with the community garden. We needed this step to take place to clear the land. We just really appreciate the cooperation of the fire departments in helping us do that.”

According to Ray Harris, training captain for Bunyan Volunteer Fire Department, the opportunity to burn the structures was rare and valuable for department training, which, in turn, generates more experience among firefighters who serve the community. About eight to 10 new firefighters with Bunyan VFD participated in the project, which is the first opportunity it was able to do a controlled burn in three or four years, Harris said.

“On our end, we were able to do some training we normally wouldn’t be able to do by burning structures,” Harris said. “It gives us the opportunity to take (firefighters) into real life scenarios under real life fire conditions. They’re able to go in and see how fire grows, the effects it has inside a room under different types of construction — it’s just something we can’t recreate inside of a metal training facility. It allowed us to help the church in their mission to help those less fortunate, but it also helped us in being able to train some firefighters and grow within their positions within the fire department.”

The garden was established in 2014 as a way to provide fresh produce to those in need in the community, a ministry the church set up in honor of Ruby Pippin, a lifelong member of Asbury UMC and avid gardener, who passed away in 2014. The church purchased the land especially for the project, a vision of church member Margaret Hudson.

Since its inception, the garden has supplied about 1,000 pounds of produce to Eagle’s Wings food pantry, Zion Shelter and Kitchen and others over the past two growing seasons.

Plans for expansion of the garden came after a $10,000 Duke Endowment grant, funds to allow removal of the two structures and clearing of the land to accommodate the addition of raised-bed gardens. The grant will also help establish a county water hookup to use for the garden. Before the partnership, the cost to remove the buildings was estimated at $8,000.

Church officials invite the community to participate in the garden to grow their own food and plan to set up some kind of buy-in system, such as a fee and a commitment to tithe a percentage of participants’ harvested vegetables, according to Reed.

Asbury United Methodist Church is located at 88 Asbury Church Road in Washington. For more information about Ruby’s Garden, call the church at 252-946-2224.