The Community Action of Southern Kentucky Garden Program starts April 18.

“We begin scheduling appointments on Monday,” said Community Action community services Warren County coordinator Barbara Page. “We do them by appointment.”

Participants get a $20 voucher that can be used at three local vendors, to be determined, Page said.

“They will be eligible to pick up garden plants and fertilizers,” she said. “They can not buy flowers or dirt.”

Eligible participants must be within 125 percent of the poverty guidelines and bring proof of income and Social Security numbers of everyone in the home, Page said.

“It’s just another program we have to encourage economic self support,” she said.

The program has been around for more than 15 years, Page said.

“We want to encourage people to eat healthier. That way, they can grow some of their food whereas they won’t have to spend as much of their money on store-bought vegetables,” she said. “We also want to promote canning and freezing for later use.”

Sometimes Community Action has classes when the vegetables start coming in, Page said.

“We’ll work with the extension offices to offer cooking, canning and freezing classes,” she said.

The Warren County Cooperative Extension Office offers canning and freezing classes for anyone throughout the summer, said Megan Bailey, Warren County extension agent for horticulture. One class is Edible Kentucky.

“It starts in May and goes through September. We build raised beds behind our facility and have individual classes. When you’re canning and preserving you want to know how to grow the vegetables,” she said. “We have a pickling part where we teach how to make bread and butter pickles, dill pickles and sweet pickles. We go over processes of different types. We have a salsa class. It depends on the timing and season of what class we have going on.”

Extension agents discuss the exact methods and safety and food handling procedures, Bailey said.

“We make sure they’re canning and freezing a safe product,” she said. “They’re going to learn how to preserve their food.”

Edible Kentucky is $25 per garden bed.

“Your whole family can do it for $25,” Bailey said.

There are other canning and freezing classes that take place during the summer. Vegetables for those classes are purchased from some of the local farmers markets. Anyone can join them for a minimal fee, Bailey said. There are also gardening and nutrition classes held throughout the year.

“Most of the canning and preserving classes take place throughout the summer because that’s when people are doing it,” she said.

– For more information about Edible Kentucky, call the Warren County Cooperative Extension Service at 270-842-1681.

– For more information about the Garden Program, call 270-782-4437.

– Follow features reporter Alyssa Harvey on Twitter @bgdnfeatures or visit bgdailynews.com.