Vegetable garden project connects teens and seniors, gives back to the community

Published 11:02 am Friday, October 7, 2011

Since July, the Redmond Senior Center (RSC) has been the site of a project that is working to bridge the generation gap and give back to the community.

About a dozen seniors and teens have teamed up and planted a vegetable garden in the RSC greenhouse with the plan to donate the produce to the Hopelink’s Redmond Food Bank, which just opened in its new location at 16725 Cleveland St. in downtown Redmond.

From carrots, cauliflower and broccoli to lettuces, spinach and onions, the group will provide the food bank with fresh produce throughout the fall.

On Thursday, they began harvesting some of the lettuce and will continue harvesting the vegetables as they become ready.

Samantha Smith, a recreation leader for the Old Fire House Teen Center, said the teen center works on partnering with other groups within the city for projects and the vegetable garden seemed like a good way to combine community service with building intergenerational relationships as well as put the RSC’s greenhouse to good use.

“They seemed really excited,” she said about the groups’ reactions to her suggestion to start the garden.

Carole Browning, chair of the advisory council for the RSC, said they were pleased to come on board for the project and hope to team up with the teen center for future projects such as a possible toy drive for Hopelink during the upcoming holiday season.

“The teens have been wonderful,” she said.

Smith said this project has been almost everyone’s first experience with gardening so along with learning about each other, they have been learning some green thumb skills.

A lot of trial and error has been involved, but she said for the most part things have been going well.

Smith added that they hope to keep the garden growing year round and grow different vegetables each season. However, this will depend on weather conditions and how they affect the greenhouse.