Vegetables grown at the Trackside Neighborhood Garden are donated to Wilton’s food pantry at Comstock Community Center.
Wilton Youth Services, the Wilton Garden Club, and Trackside Teen Center are once again hosting the Green Teens gardening program for students in grades 5 through 8.
Led by experienced gardeners from the garden club, Green Teens teaches young people about the benefits of growing and eating healthy foods. Participants will work together to design garden beds, plant, maintain and harvest produce, and learn how to cook garden vegetables. This will be a community service project for youth to earn service hours as produce harvested by Green Teens will be donated to Wilton’s food pantry during the course of this program.
Green Teens will meet from 3:30 to 5 on Wednesdays from May 4 through June 8 at the Trackside Neighborhood Garden. There will also be an opportunity for friends and family to volunteer and maintain the gardens over the summer months. Registration is free and may be completed online at trackside.org/green-teens.
Ann Collis, Sarah Gioffre, and Pam Nobumoto are coordinating the Green Teens program for the Wilton Garden Club. The program is also being supported by Jim Hunter of the Wilton High School Organic Garden and Jonathan Kirschner of Ambler Farm. Both organizations will donate seedlings to the Green Teens program. Boy Scout Troop 20 will organize the design, construction and installation of additional beds and compost bins.
The Neighborhood Garden at Trackside was originally built by Girl Scout Karina Olsen for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project in 2011. She and other Wilton High School students grew vegetables and flowers at the garden for many years for the food pantry.
In the spring of 2015, Steven Batter and Nicholas Johnson of Boy Scout Troop 20 designed, constructed, and installed new raised beds and a tool shed at the garden for their Eagle Scout projects. The Green Teens program was launched shortly after with more than 25 youth planting and tending the garden in the spring and summer months producing more than 30 pounds of produce for the food pantry.
Direct any questions to Trackside Program Director Amy Nassef at 203- 834-2888 or Amy@trackside.org.
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