MARTINSBURG — Hedgesville High School Vocational Agriculture (VOC-AG) students held a special media event for the opening of a new outdoor garden, a 1.5-acre area that will be used to grow several varieties of root vegetables to benefit the Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission and Berkeley County Meals on Wheels.
Berkeley County Schools (BCS) Superintendent Ron Stephens said the partnership began with a suggestion from students. With the help of VOC-AG instructor Christopher Vandyne, the students made arrangements to donate their yield to help these organizations.
“I just think it’s wonderful what they’re going to be doing for the community, and it started with having a discussion, themselves,” Stephens said. “It’s about service — what can we do to help our own community.”
Stephens said it is “easy to green stamp” a project that not only is educational but can serve the community in such an impactful way. He said BCS Career & Technical Education Director Kenneth Pack worked to secure funding for a John Deere tractor from a variety of sources to help the students with this endeavor.
Vandyne said the garden is estimated to produce anywhere between 15,000-20,000 pounds of potatoes this year. He said the project is expected to continue next year and that the yield will be split 50/50 between the Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission and Berkeley County Meals on Wheels.
Food Manager Richard Burger and Haven House Case Manager Hannah Scott were in attendance on behalf of the Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission. Burger said this generous donation will help the organization offset the cost of meals.
Dianne Waldron, program manager for Berkeley County Meals on Wheels, said, “The nutritious value is going to be fantastic for our homebound seniors, who we deliver to.”
Lucas Dunham served as the student spokesperson for the event. He attends HHS and James Rumsey Technical Institute, and he serves as the Hedgesville Future Farmers of America (FFA) president. He said the students will grow potatoes, carrots and onions, primarily, and that the garden is an addition to the other projects at the VOC-AG center.
“We’re giving back to the community, but the people that are in our class that get to help realize how much of a difference they make,” Dunham said. “And, they’re learning skills that they’ll be able to use outside of school once they graduate. If they ever wanted to have a garden or raise animals, we have animals, as well. It helps them find what they like. It helps the kids just as much as it helps these people when we donate this food.”
Dunham said the project is just getting underway. Students have plowed the field, and they are preparing the area for maximum yield.
“We just finished plowing the field, and we’re discing it now,” he said. “It took about a week to do, just to plow. We’ll probably have a half a month to a month into it to get everything ready. We’re getting ready to get the seeds started.”
According to Dunham, the idea to start and maintain a garden that can help so many people in the community began with FAA Vice President Kasey Payne. She worked with Vandyne to enlist the help of the school board, and the partnership was established.
Payne explained she heard from representatives at the Martinsburg Union Rescue Mission that fresh vegetables are currently harder for them to obtain. Due to class time restraints, Payne said the students selected the root vegetables as they grow.
“For our garden, we chose these selected vegetables only because we have a class period for an hour and a half,” she said. “So, we don’t have much time to be up here and to attend to these crops as we would like. We all come together, each class period. We all come out here and work together to get this taken care of, and with only having an hour and a half, it’s easier with these certain vegetables we have chosen.”
In addition to the garden, the students have a high tunnel, greenhouse, a full chicken coop, turkeys and several beehives.