Teens team up to create Hempstead garden

Six teens from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore have donated their time to build a container garden at the Family & Children’s Hagedorn Family Resource Center in Hempstead Village.

The students, Andrew Brancato, Kevin Carr, Andrew Cohn, John Mantz, Noah Moradoff and Jacob Schwartz, cleared the space, measured and planned the garden. They ordered the supplies, built the raised beds with wood and filled them with soil, compost and manure.

The teens hope to finish by Tuesday. The student government at the high school raised $1,100 to fund the project at 120 Greenwich St., said Joyce Mullen, spokeswoman for the Family & Children’s Association.

The staff of the nonprofit community center has been educating the children involved in its after-school programs about gardening and the health benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables, Mullen said.

Once the garden is completed, the children will tend it and harvest the vegetables. The center’s after-school cooking club plans to use some of the vegetables in their recipes and share recipes with families in the community, Mullen said.