Officials unveil organic community garden in Wyandanch

Families in Wyandanch will be spending less time with their hands on shopping carts and more time with their hands in the dirt thanks to a new community garden.

Babylon Town officials Tuesday unveiled a new organic community garden called the Wyandanch FRESH Community Roots Garden. FRESH stands for Farming for Renewal, Environmental Sustainability and Health.

The garden consists of 20 raised-bed plots of land behind the Youth Services Building in downtown Wyandanch. Families signed up for the plots on a first-come first-served basis and were given a list of produce to choose from for their gardens. They must maintain the gardens for a year.

The garden was funded by a state department of health grant given to Stony Brook University's Department of Family Medicine. Organic seeds and training were donated by Quail Hill Farms in Amagansett; compost was donated by Long Island Compost. Plots were built by the Nassau-Suffolk Building Trades Council's Built on Pride program.

Children from Wyandanch's Martin Luther King Elementary school joined town officials Tuesday in the first plantings. Using rakes and hoes, the fourth and fifth-graders began cultivating the lettuce, onions and other produce they hope will eventually flourish.

Supervisor Steve Bellone said the youngsters were "pioneers" of long-term plans to create a student-run downtown farmers' market, part of the town's focus on sustainability in its Wyandanch revitalization plans. "It teaches business skills to students, it teaches kids about farming and planting and it teaches them about better nutrition," he said.

This is the second year of a five-year project to create gardens and promote healthy eating, said Leah Holbrook, a registered dietitian at Stony Brook. The $82,000-a-year grant supports four gardens each year. "It creates the opportunity for lower-cost access to fresh vegetables that are not a part of many families' diets," she said.

Fourth-grade teacher Migdalia Meléndez, who heads the school's Earth Rangers program, called the gardens a wonderful addition. She has a plot and is donating the produce to three families who were not able to sign up. "The fact is, these kids have nothing to do after school," she said. "Now they have an activity, they can commune with nature."

Rasauna Meléndez, 10, is looking forward to pulling mature produce out of the dirt and enjoying a salad of fresh lettuce, tomatoes and maybe even cucumbers. She said it was hard work but worth it, adding, "At least I get to see tiny little bugs and hang with my friends."