This summer, St. Joseph's Center for Community Service welcomed the Second Annual kick-off of the “St. Joseph’s Bountiful Harvest Community Garden,” made possible in part by a grant from USDA. The partnership includes Cooperative Extension at the University of Delaware and Delaware State University, Kent County Girl Scout troops, St. Joseph’s, and local food pantries. Last year’s yield was over 1,000 pounds.

Cooperative Extension agents are providing expertise and development of the 2010 Community Garden plot, twice the size of last year. Through the University of Delaware, the project is funded by a multi-project Integrated Pest Management grant, which helped purchase seeds, plants, and other items, as well as labor to help tend the garden alongside Girl Scouts from area troops.

DuPont Crop Protection is contributing various items, while Southern States of Clayton has provided additional tools. Harvesting takes place at times through the later growing season, with the Girl Scouts taking produce items to food pantries serving folks in the Smyrna-Clayton area.

Special thanks go to: Anna Stoops, New Castle County Agriculture Extension Agent; Joanne Whalen, University of Delaware Integrated Pest Management/Entomology Specialist; Jason Challandes and Mike Wasylkowski of the Sustainable Ag Research Education Program at Delaware State University, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Following the planting, guests were treated to an eco-tour of the 200-acre, natural resource grounds of St. Joseph’s Center for Community Service. Applied Ecological Services, currently doing an extensive environmental study of the property through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, conducted the tour.

For information on St. Joseph’s and its various natural resource, historical restoration, and community service projects, please call (302) 653-8814.