May 10, 2026
The Sister St. Mark Garden Fund extends our care for Earth and for our dear neighbors by supporting garden projects that sow seeds of community and reduce food insecurity.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, PA, are excited to announce the awarding of 28 grants from the Sister St. Mark Garden Fund to these 28 organizations for the 2026 growing season:
- B.F. Jones Memorial Library – Aliquippa, PA
- Ballfield Farm – Pittsburgh, PA
- Bethel AME Church – Pittsburgh, PA
- Big Sewickley Creek Watershed Association – Cranberry Twp., PA
- Center for Coalfield Justice – Washington, PA
- Community Partnership, Inc – Butler, PA
- First United Presbyterian Church of Tarentum – Tarentum, PA
- Garfield Community Farm – Pittsburgh, PA
- Hill District Consensus Group – Pittsburgh, PA
- Hope Grows – Moon Twp., PA
- Klean Kensington – Philadelphia, PA
- Knoxville Community Council – Pittsburgh, PA
- Lackawanna Community Gardens Initiative Inc. – Wilkes Barre, PA
- Mooncrest Neighborhood Programs – Moon Twp., PA
- North Hills Community Outreach Inc. – Allison Park, PA
- Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church – Orange, CA
- Providence Church Garden – McKees Rocks, PA
- ReImagine Food Systems Westmoreland County – Harrison City, PA
- Rochester Area School District – Rochester, PA
- Saint Benedict the Moor Church – Pittsburgh, PA
- Sharpsburg Neighborhood Organization – Sharpsburg, PA
- Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Network – Erie, PA
- St. John Lutheran Church – Boiling Springs, PA
- St. Paul AME Church – Pittsburgh, PA
- Svdp Monastery Gardens – Altoona, PA
- The Center in Midland – Midland, PA
- The Pittsburgh Project – Pittsburgh, PA
- Valley View Presbyterian Church – Pittsburgh, PA
The funds will help our garden partners invest in tools, seeds, and fencing for community garden spaces that cultivate community and provide fresh, healthy food. Grantees are also supporting our dear neighbors through hands-on educational sessions for new gardeners, hosting seed swaps, transforming vacant lots into usable garden space, launching pollinator and native plant projects, and much more.
Since 2019, the Sister St. Mark Garden fund has awarded 114 grants totaling $71,810. The grants are made possible through a portion of the proceeds from Faith. Field. Feast., an annual farm-to-table dinner on our Baden grounds.
Named for Sister St. Mark Lesko, who oversaw the Motherhouse grounds in the 1940s and 50s when it was a working farm that supplied much of the Sisters’ food, the Sister St. Mark Garden Fund supports the Congregation’s goals of:
- Reducing food insecurity and providing healthy food choices for families and youth;
- Sustaining community gardens in local neighborhoods; and
- Building community through grassroots relationships and collaboration
Sister St. Mark Lesko, who was born on July 1, 1894, entered the Sisters of St. Joseph from St. John Parish in Johnstown, PA. She worked most of her religious life in the laundry of St. Joseph Hospital on Pittsburgh’s Southside.
When the doctors felt that Sister’s lungs were weakening from constant exposure to lint in the laundry, they advised her to change to an “open air” ministry. Sister St. Mark was then placed in charge of the farm at the Motherhouse.
Sister St. Mark was a gentle, quiet woman who spent her life in humble, untiring service. She died in 1960, just nine days after her 66th birthday.