Trader Joes Employees Help Establish a Garden at the Center for Comfort Care and Healing

Trader Joes of Danbury has been incredibly generous to Regional Hospice and Home Care’s Center for Comfort Care and Healing. Since the Center has first opened its doors to the community February 2015 Trader Joes has provided flowers and plants for Center. Each week volunteers comes into the Center to create beautiful arrangements for each room.

This week nine Trader Joes employees, along with two Regional Hospice and Home Care volunteers worked together for almost five hours to set the group work for a brand new vegetable garden at the Center. Volunteers prepared the soil for the future site of the permaculture garden from a generous donation of organic compost donated by Hollandia Nursery. Utilizing old wood palates, the volunteers built a new compost bin for the chef at the Center to create new compost. Trader Joes employee, Cliff Olsen, event donated six thorn-less blackberry bushes to get the garden started. Produce yielded from this garden will be used by the Chef at the Center to create local, seasonal, nutritious meals for the patients and their families. This is the second permaculture garden Trader Joes has created in the Danbury area. The first permaculture garden is located at the Jane Goodall Center of Western Connecticut State University.

The garden was also blessed by a clearing ceremony lead by Drew Shuptar-Rayvis a Native American of the Accomac/Pocomoke descent.

Regional Hospice and Home Care’s team of experienced clinicians have been providing physical, emotional, spiritual and bereavement support to children, adults and their families through our palliative and hospice care program for the past 30 years. Regional Hospice and Home Care is a nonprofit, state-licensed and Medicare-certified home health care and hospice agency. Now, with the opening of our new private-room, specialty hospital for palliative and end-of-life care — the Center for Comfort Care & Healing — Regional Hospice and Home Care can bring that same hope and compassionate care close to home and under one roof.