Panama City - The St. Andrews community is one step closer to getting their community garden up and running.

The Lowe's Hometown Heroes program broke ground on the project Wednesday morning

This project has been in the works for almost a year now.

Lowe's selected the community garden as this year's Hometown Heroes project.

Wednesday morning about 30 volunteers from the Lowe’s stores in Panama city and Panama City Beach joined forces to get the garden up and running.

The Hometown Heroes program donated a tool shed along with various supplies and garden tools.

Sikes construction donated fill and topsoil and was also on hand for heavy landscaping.

The community garden is a collaborative effort between the St Andrews Waterfront Partnership and the Community Redevelopment Association.

The hope is the garden will both educate and bring the community together.

“It's going to build relationships with residents in the community, also some agencies that work toward healthy eating. This will educate people and teach life shills that kids need and aren't getting these days. How many kids do you know that know how to tend a garden and the responsibilities and what it entails,” asked St. Andrews CRA Program Manager Shawna Beji.

"It was an opportunity in the area that I thought would really benefit the area, something the community could really get behind, something where we could all come together and really do something to help that's environmentally-friendly that Lowe's could be a part of,” said Michael Sullivan the local leader of the Lowe’s Hometown Heroes program.

The St Andrews community garden project is also the recipient of the 25-thousand dollar Lowe’s corporation grant.

This money will go toward building the beds, buying all the tools and a greenhouse, and various marketing efforts.

The hope is to have the garden's first planting in March.

Applications will be available to purchase a plot.

The plots are priced at 20 dollars each, but scholarships will be available for those not able to meet that.