Five decades ago, when Holy Cross Lutheran Church built its modest sanctuary in Bellevue, the landscape surrounding the Factoria church was vastly different from today.

Farmland stretched openly where roads and developments now crisscross a grid of homes and businesses, leaving little evidence of Bellevue’s agricultural past.

But thanks to three years of hard work from members of the church and surrounding community, a vestige of those days has returned in the form of a P-Patch and apple orchard, where community members can lease plots to grow organic produce and flowers.

“We knew we had this asset in the orchard and garden,” church patron Jan Starr said. “We decided to put a P-Patch in.”

The garden, divided into 200-square-foot subplots, is home to a stunning array of fruits, vegetables and flowers, many of which are uncommon in the Pacific Northwest. Starr said the neighborhood’s rich ethnic diversity has contributed to the variety in the garden, which includes Asian herbs, Kiwis and melons.

But despite the all-encompassing sensory experience provided within the garden, it is what takes place after the weekly harvest that sets it apart.

Starr said it didn’t take long for gardeners to realize their bounty often outweighed their appetites and while gifting fresh produce to neighbors and friends is often met with excitement, it can also be unreliable and intrusive. So for the past three years, members of the P-Patch at Holy Cross have made weekly donations to Hopelink food bank.

“It really feels good,” Starr said. “It’s been really fun.”

The roughly 20 gardeners donated around 800 pounds of fresh produce to Hopelink in 2011 before surpassing 1,600 pounds last year. This year, Starr hopes they can top one ton of fresh produce donated.

Kris Betker, a public relations specialist with Hopelink, said fresh donations are always cause for celebration.

“Fresh produce can be pricey to purchase,” she said. “It’s always a good thing when the community gets involved in that way.”

While shelf-stable and canned items are the staple of food banks like Hopelink, Betker said any opportunity to introduce people to new fresh items or provide a favorite is a good one and with budget cuts leaving perishable items dwindling, donations from P-Patches and local gardeners is one of the ways to close the gap.

For Starr and the rest of the gardeners, including Linda Anchondo, it is another way to connect with the community the church has called home for more than 50 years.

“That’s really what it is all about,” Anchondo said. “You don’t want to give it to people who don’t want it.”