Skip to main content

Helping Hands Garden getting solid start

Huntington North High School student Kirby Jones hands off vegetable seeds to Salem Stanley (standing), as Jade Uhrich (kneeling) plants her seeds in the Helping Hands Garden adjacent to Viking Lane on Thursday, April 29.
Huntington North High School student Kirby Jones hands off vegetable seeds to Salem Stanley (standing), as Jade Uhrich (kneeling) plants her seeds in the Helping Hands Garden adjacent to Viking Lane on Thursday, April 29. Photo by Cindy Klepper.

The produce is now growing at the Helping Hands Garden adjacent to Huntington North High School.

Third-graders from Flint Springs Elementary School planted starts and seeds in the garden on Thursday, April 29, with help from HNHS agriculture students and master gardeners from the local Purdue Extension office.

The garden is being planted on approximately 2.5 acres of land. HNHS students used their greenhouse to start tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and other produce and, with the help of local farmers, prepared the garden for planting.

The Indiana National Guard delivered a "water buffalo" to the site on April 28 to store water for the garden.
Individuals, clubs and churches purchased seeds and gardening tools and will handle some maintenance activities.

The produce grown in the garden will be given to people receiving food stamps, people who are unemployed or handicapped and people who have served in the armed forces. Those eligible to receive produce from the garden must first attend an Extension program on preserving the items and preparing them in a healthy manner. Recipients must pick the produce themselves, although volunteers will harvest and deliver produce to the elderly and those with handicaps.

If output exceeds demand, the excess will be sold at a local farmers' market to offset future costs.

The project is being coordinated by Huntington County resident Stan Bippus.

Complete caption: Huntington North High School student Kirby Jones hands off vegetable seeds to Salem Stanley (standing), as Jade Uhrich (kneeling) plants her seeds in the Helping Hands Garden adjacent to Viking Lane on Thursday, April 29. The Flint Springs students visited the HNHS greenhouse after the planting session.