Temple Oheb Shalom's Gan Chaie initiative has been honored by the Union for Reform Judaism's Social Action Commission with the Irving J. Fain Social Action Award.
The Gan Chaie - or Garden of Life - involves part of the back lawn of the synagogue at 7310 Park Heights Ave. The congregation transformed the area into a garden to grow organic produce, donating most of the food to the kitchen at St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Church in Sandtown-Winchester.
The project is modeled on a similar program at a Connecticut synagogue. Led by master gardener Larry Kloze, about 40 members of the temple - as well as people from the American Jewish Congress and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation - have grown vegetables.
