St. Benedict's Grows Its Own Vegetables for the Food Pantry

A summer crop of squash, peppers and tomatoes grown by volunteers on the grounds of St. Benedict's church is filling the shelves at the food pantry next door, and going home in grocery bags with the needy. 

Early Thursday morning, as the sun baked the ground planted with rows of vegetables in a large garden next to the parish's St. Vincent de Paul food pantry, students were carefully placing carrot seeds into neat rows for a fall crop.  

Alison Ryan of Aberdeen, who helps coordinate the volunteers, was filling a bucket full of freshly picked fat, green Kirby cucumbers.  "I think its very important, especially for the food panty, that the people coming here get fresh vegetables," she said.

"I’m here at 9 o’clock in the morning -- it doesn’t open till ten -- and I see people lined up here. It's just a good feeling that they’re getting some healthy, wholesome food here."

The professional-looking St. Benedict Community Garden was constructed last year by an Eagle Scout. This year, it has produced 260 lbs of squash and 140 lbs of cucumbers, as wells as lots of green peppers, Rutgers tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and butternut squash.

Brothers Sean Sullivan, 16 and Thomas Sullivan 13, of Aberdeen were hoeing rows and planting the fall crop of turnips, carrots, cauliflower, and cabbages. Sean has put nearly 35 hours into the garden, towards his St. John Vianney community service obligation. "I think its a great idea, it's so close to the pantry," he said. Thomas, who's exceeded his own goal of ten hours towards Confirmation, added he thinks its "pretty cool" that he can walk over to the pantry and see people taking home the fruit of his labor. 

Garden manager Charles Coutu of Hazlet was digging up the planting bed, to rotate the soil, level it and prepare it for seeding. "Next year it will be even better," said Coutu. "We’ve enriched the soil and now we’re going to have it tested by Rutgers again."

St. Ben's parishioners provide the labor, and everything used in the garden was donated by local businesses such as Dearborn Farms, Bayshore Nursery, Lowes, Costco and 

Dawn Guardino, a co-treasurer of the St. Vincent de Paul Pantry Board of Directors, said the vegetables help fill a need to the pantry budget can't always cover. 

"Basically the garden is providing us with the extras that we think our clients should have. It's gone over very well, especially with parents and seniors," she said. 

"We know next year we’d like to double it in size," she said.