Early this spring, a nine-year-old Cub Scout in Granby was having dinner with her family, and made a simple comment, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a garden that grew food for the food bank?”
The question was a good one, and the answer was easy—Yes, that would be cool!
Her idea was brought to the Pack 325 leaders, who agreed to give it a try. Coincidentally, the Volunteer Fair put on by the Granby Public Library was that week and by the end of the day, the scouts had arranged with Waste Not Want Not Community Kitchen to accept any produce the scouts could donate. The Granby Grange No. 5 had generously offered garden space, the American Legion Post 182 offered to prep the area and till the ground, and the Lions Club agreed to send some volunteers to help the Scouts plant.
A date was picked for a planting party, and with a truckload of donated plants from Aerie Mountain Nursery in Barkhamsted, the scouts (and some friends) showed up ready to get to work!
The kids, ranging in age from preschool to third grade, unloaded the truck, pulled any remaining weeds from the area and got down to business. They planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, basil, parsley, green beans, lettuce, lettuce and more lettuce!
The adult volunteers, including scout parents and members of the Grange and Lions, helped teach the kids as they worked. Did you know that tomatoes like to be planted really deep? Or that cucumbers should be planted on a little mound of dirt? Because our scouts know that now! The kids were delighted to find that the garden was crawling with worms, and they named them all Jonathan, losing count at 104 Jonathans.
Throughout the summer, scouts and their families have been weeding and watering the garden. The tomatoes needed cages, so a request went out on Facebook for anyone who would be willing to donate their old, unused cages, and the response from the community was overwhelming.
The scouts gathered for a harvesting party, picking more than ten gallon-sized bags of lettuce that they delivered to Waste Not Want Not. To date, they have been able to deliver a handful of peppers, a bag of green beans, some parsley and basil, and are waiting patiently for the cucumbers and tomatoes to be ready to harvest.
Community service is a large part of the Cub Scout program, and the garden project has been a great opportunity for the scouts to do something to help those in need. It also helped connect the kids to other volunteer organizations, showing that a generous spirit and a desire to make a difference has no age limit.