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SOLEBURY: Eagle project is a garden for Lambertville food pantry

   SOLEBURY— Seeds have sprouted and the vegetable plants are thriving in the new Food Pantry Garden at Solebury United Methodist Church.
   The installation of the garden was spearheaded by Bradley Neumann, a Life Scout with Solebury Boy Scout Troop 34, as his community service project for the rank of Eagle Scout.
   The garden has been named “Helping Hand Harvest” and is a fenced-in 20-by-30- foot area growing green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and peppers. The produce will be distributed to local families in need through the Delaware Valley Interfaith Council Food Pantry (DVIC), located behind St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church on Bridge Street in Lambertville.
   The DVIC Food Pantry has served the local communities on both sides of the river for more than 50 years.
   The idea and inspiration for the project came from Bradley’s Sunday school teachers who envisioned establishing a vegetable garden as a way to give back to the community. Bradley began planning the project last fall and made his first presentation to the church’s board of trustees in January and to his troop committee in March.
   Construction of the garden began in April and involved removing sod, digging post holes and securing posts with concrete, assembling and filling raised beds with bedding soil, installing an automatic drip irrigation system, spreading crushed stone in the pathways and securing an 8-foot-high fixed knot fence. Bradley’s efforts, along with other Scouts, friends and family combined for a total of 300 plus hours to make the project a reality.
   The garden was completed in mid-June and Pastor John Cordes, of Solebury United Methodist Church, dedicated the garden on Father’s Day.
   There were many people along the way who provided advice, encouragement and generous discounts of materials needed to construct the garden.
   Credit for help goes to Hugh A. Marshall Landscape Contractors Incorporated, New Hope; Tinsman Brothers Lumber Company, Lumberville; Davis Feed Mill Incorporated, of Rushland; and Coles Nurseries Incorporated, Lahaska.
   For more information, go to www.helpinghandharvest.org.
    — Ruth Luse