Volunteers plant garden for Youth Center

  • Published
  • By Angie Sillonis
  • US Family Health Plan
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Children at the Hanscom Youth Center will be able to enjoy vegetables and herbs all summer, as well as learn the responsibility for taking care of a garden themselves, courtesy of US Family Health Plan.

The company shut down its Brighton office the afternoon of May 30 as volunteers worked with a group of children from the Youth Center to plant the community garden in a bed next to the Youth Center.

"This was a fun opportunity to work alongside the youth group at Hanscom, and I'm sure they'll enjoy the fruits of their labor throughout the summer," said David Chicoine, senior vice president and plan CEO of US Family Health Plan at Brighton Marine. "As part of the Hanscom community since 1993, it is our mission to care for and support local military families."

This is US Family Health Plan's second year sponsoring the garden and volunteering to plant it.

Underneath the sign proclaiming the community garden, volunteers planted marigolds. These flowers, as well as herbs will line one side of the raised bed. Inside the bed will be many vegetables, including tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, beans, broccoli and eggplant. The plants were purchased and donated by the Northeast Regional 4-H organization.

The children will be able to tend the garden throughout the summer, making sure it's weeded and watered.

According to Ann-Marie Ely, Youth Sports and Fitness director at Hanscom's Youth Center, the kids who help with the garden are given the opportunity to harvest the produce, which they can take home, or they can take the produce back to the Youth Center and learn to prepare a dish.

For further information about opportunities available to Hanscom youth, call the Youth Center at 781-225-6043.