Tube City Almanac

June 13, 2012

Ground Broken for New Kiwanis Community Garden

Category: News || By Submitted Report

Plans for a new community garden in the city's Third Ward were unveiled yesterday by the Kiwanis Club of McKeesport and White Oak.

The garden --- located on several vacant lots along Walnut Street between Whigham and 11th avenues --- will provide a place for individuals, families or organizations to grow vegetables, which would be used or sold by the growers or given to local food banks and soup kitchens.

Besides providing a place and project for strengthening relationships in the community, the club hopes that the garden will be a centerpiece for community leaders and organizations to develop programs that will educate families and children about the benefits of growing and eating fresh, healthy foods, said Brian Evans, president of the local Kiwanis and pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in White Oak.

Garden plots will be available to residents and community organizations beginning in the spring of 2013. The goal for this summer is to lay the groundwork, both physically and organizationally.

With the cooperation of Mayor Michael Cherepko, the city's Redevelopment Authority, Public Works, the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, Blueroof Technologies, and Mission on the Mon --- a Lutheran mission providing free labor --- ground has been broken and development is moving full speed ahead.

Meanwhile, the Kiwanis Club is seeking to identify community representatives and residents to form a governing board, which will determine the best model for organizing the garden, identify additional funding sources and partners, establish rules for its use, and create educational programs in cooperation with other organizations, Evans said.

The local club has committed $2,500 towards the project, about $1,500 of which is from a grant provided to the club by the former mayor, state Sen. James Brewster, a McKeesport Democrat.

(Editor's Note: Submitted by the Rev. Brian Evans, president, Kiwanis of McKeesport and White Oak.)

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I wish them luck in their endeavors, and sincerely hope that the first time someone steals a tomato or trashes a plant (it’s bound to happen), they don’t demand that a wall with razor wire be constructed.

Stay civil, people. The “community” in “community garden” refers more to who benefits from it, not where it’s located. Play nice.
John - June 15, 2012



I am a resident in Elizabeth, and I do composting with worms. I’d like to help by providing some compost (as an organic fertilizer) in exchange for being able to monitor and photograph the plants that receive compost vs. those that do not.

Can anyone provide the phone number or email of the person I can contact to get permission to do this?

Thanks!
Jill (URL) - July 18, 2012



1
- April 19, 2015



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