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Nine Thousand Pounds of Salad to Go
Southwark garden feeds seniors and others in need
Article and photos by Lucy Erdelac
For Volunteer Leader Janice Chorba, Mark Raymond, Barbara McKenzie and more than 60 other members of the green thumb club (aka the Southwark/Queen Village Community Garden), picking, gathering and giving away fresh summer produce has long been part of the garden’s culture.
Janice Chorba leads the garden's City Harvest program, providing fresh produce weekly to neighborhood seniors.
In addition to the three large garden beds for vegetables destined for donation, any gardener is free to donate what they grow.
One of three garden beds dedicated to growing food donated to Courtyard seniors.
This year, like the past eight before it, more than a thousand pounds of organic vegetables were donated to seniors-in-need who reside in the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview on South 4th Street at Washington Avenue. A staff member of the Courtyard partners with Chorba to weigh, receive, and transport each week’s bounty, which averages 100 pounds.
Gardener Mark Raymond does a wheelie with 72 pounds of salad.
Gardener Barbara McKenzie holds one of several donated trombone zucchinis.
The Southwark/Queen Village Community Garden is a member of City Harvest, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s program that provides support to local growers who offer organically grown vegetables to neighbors who otherwise would not have access to them. City Harvest provides the community garden with a wide variety of young plants, which Chorba and other volunteer gardeners grow specifically for their donation to elderly neighbors who live at the Courtyard Apartments at Riverview. ■
Queen Village Quarterly Crier \\ FALL 2019
