St. Peter's Episcopal Church, St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Trinity Episcopal School, First United Methodist Church and Friendship Gardens have received a $5,500 award to start a collaborative Inner City Garden Initiative, and they're looking for volunteers to help kick off the project Saturday.

Anyone interested in getting involved or supporting the project should contact coordinators Ann Bass at 704-996-2398 or Nancy Duncan at InnerCityGardens4@gmail.com.

Inner City Garden Initiative organizers have planned a community workday for Saturday, Feb. 4. Many volunteers are needed to prepare the planting beds and to install gravel on the paths in the outdoor classroom. Volunteers are asked to arrive by 10 a.m. and bring water, shovels, hard rakes, gloves and wheelbarrows. Lunch will be provided by Harvest Moon Grille. Parking is available in the Trinity Episcopal School parking lot at 750 E. 9th St. Volunteers should meet organizers at the 8th Street side of the hedges near the school's playground.

The mission of the initiative is to establish gardens in First Ward that will serve recipients of Friendship Trays, First Ward residents and students. The gardens will create opportunities for volunteers to join together and work side by side to grow fresh, healthy, local food. The first garden will be located on 8th Street near Trinity Episcopal School. In addition to providing food for those in need, the 8th Street garden will be a new outdoor classroom for Trinity's Wildcat Gardening curriculum.

The 8th Street garden will feature a Three Sisters Garden, planted and nurtured by Trinity kindergartners; hydroponic plants transplanted from the second-grade classroom; and a North Carolina vegetable garden, planted and harvested by fourth-graders, and will be bordered by espaliered fruit trees and blueberry bushes. There will be a work area for teaching, composting and other garden chores.